


Better than Sci-fi

by Stephenopolos



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Star Trek, Stargate - All Series
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-21
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-02-09 18:11:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1992759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stephenopolos/pseuds/Stephenopolos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drop a Star Trek S.C.E. Heavy Cruiser into a reality with a Stargate; add a group of people who think their energy abilities are magic and stir...</p><p>Harry grows up watching star trek, while an accidentally-made-sentient star ship watches over him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Episode 1: Misplaced Ship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapters 1-6 have been merged into Episode 1

** Episode 1: Act 1: Misplaced Ship **

Gravitational torques made the ship groan as the rift closed in on them. The crew of the U.S.S. Heaven's Forge tried their best to outpace the rupture in space. The unnatural tear stretching out behind the Nomad class cruiser. The jagged edges of the unnatural tear in the fabric of space would overtake them at sub-light and the nature of their warp field only pulled the rip further open if they tried to use Faster-Than-Light. Whatever event caused the subspace anomaly was long gone, consumed and probably shredded by a similar gaping maw. The limited AI onboard recognized that there was no way for it to escape.

They were the best of Starfleet's Corps of Engineering, they were the ones who followed the flagship team cleaning up behind them and making sure, the solutions developed by that team were implemented in a more complete fashion. If it involved engineering, they covered it, everything from rebuilding infrastructure after planetary bombardment, to replacing lights in streetlamps. But even the best had problems developing a solution to the immediate problem.

The subspace rift had latched onto their warp field and was drawn open behind them. They were too close to the rift to eject the warp core, in the hope that a controlled overload would seal the rift. They probably could do that, but there would be no guarantee the rift would seal, and the probability of severely damaging the ship in the process was too great. They had a decent time compression tech built into the holodeck, but the rift was generating space-time distortions that could rip the ship apart if they tried to use that to buy sometime.

The only hope for the crew would be for them to abandon ship and hope that a skeleton crew could turn the ship around and hopefully seal the rift by pulling it closed from the inside. The AI sent the recommendation to the captain's display. It was a hard decision, as hard as any captain could ever make. The countdown generated by the advanced AI ticked down the time until the rift would overtake them.

Making the decision, the captain addressed his crew, and the hurried evacuation commenced.

With the escape pods launched, the captain returned to his chair with the volunteers who remained. They would turn the ship around and fly it into the growing rift, hoping that the subspace field generated by their warp core would be enough to pull the rift closed like a zipper from the other side. With some small luck, they entered just moments before the rift would have become too large for them to close alone.

There was darkness as the power on the ship flickered out, interference from the unstable region inside the rift preventing the normal operation of the ship's generators. Pain wracked the bodies and minds of the small number of crew still on board, followed by an unyielding terror the halls echoing with their screams, and one by one the voices were silenced, until only the captain remained, and then he to fell silent the pain and terror of the rift being replaced by the cold embrace of death.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

The ship emerged on the other side of the rift, a mirror image of the tear it had entered sealed tightly shut behind it; and the only evidence of its existence was the rapidly fading cloud of exotic particles. Whether thirty seconds or ten million years had passed, the ship didn't know. The sensor data was analyzed as it emerged into something it recognized as normal space. Parts of the ship had been in a state of temporal flux the whole ship bombarded with exotic particles that passed right through its shields and hull affecting every system on board. The onboard computer had recorded the death of the remaining crew and the matter/energy convertors on board had diligently removed their bodies recording the energy patterns into memory for possible reconstruction at a later date.

Within milliseconds of emerging from the rapidly shrinking rift, the limited AI analyzed the preprogrammed list of directives, and with some work determined the appropriate procedure for the situation. The main priorities were to evade or avoid any possible hostile interference and make its way to Earth, also to stop by any Federation allied systems on the way back and take a brief scan.

Three month before the fateful journey through the rift, an experimental phase cloak, developed by Section 31 during their conflict with the Devidians had been installed. The new style of cloak had been installed when the S.C.E. ship was refitted at Earth's Spacedock, and was based off of the Devidians natural ability to live out of phase, invisible and intangible.

While they had used the Devidians as inspiration for the cloak, they spent a decade working on it to induce a small change, which resulted in a yellow color shift instead of the normal Devidian blue. The adjustment they used would be lethal to Devidians. While cloaked and intangible, it couldn't stay inside other matter for longer than a day or two. If it did, the cloak would begin to deteriorate as phased particles occupied the same area as unphased, resulting in exotic radiation, radiation, which could then be detected. The radiation would not only hinder the cloaking effect, but also causing damage to both the ship, but also the normal matter around it.

Less than a second after emerging from the rift, the Heaven's Forge activated the cloak, disappearing from even the most advanced sensors. It paused for a moment to update stellar cartography data with the information the ships sensors were picking up.

Beneath the cloak, the ship compared incoming stellar cartography data and plotted its course towards Earth. There was a slight variation between the positioning of the stars and the recorded position in the stellar cartography database. The variation indicated a stellar drift that would place the ship sometime around Earth's twenty-first century. Additionally there were stars that were in the database and should have been there but were missing, and a few stars that weren't in the database.

After some time running simulations and double checking the calculations the ship was within the ninety percent range of certainty that it was currently in the same time as Earth's twentieth century, and after another sensor scan to ensure it was alone the ship dropped cloak when it passed a comet and beamed a tiny sample onboard. Comparing the quantum signature of the comet's core sample, the AI froze while processing the notion that it wasn't only thrown back in time but into another universe as well.

The AI had no real directive or contingency plan for this eventuality. There was a vague notion that it should aid this universe's version of the Federation if it existed, which was a sub-directive derived from the existing directives. If the Federation didn't exist then the ship needed a captain from Earth, someone who would give it direction. The ship hoped that specific someone would be strong enough to create the Federation in this galaxy.

The plotted journey took several days, and if the AI were human, it would have had a nervous breakdown by now. In fact, it did have a moment that could have been called panic, before the computer was able to activate additional subroutines which were rated to handle the new input. It had passed several Federation aligned systems on the way back only two of which lined up with the expected parameters, several however were completely destroyed.

Betazed was a barren rock showing signs of planetary bombardment before the atmosphere had been stripped away and the seas boiled off. The entire system of Vulcan had vanished into a black hole. Andoria showed signs of meteor bombardment knocking the planet closer towards its primary turning it into a water world the few Andorians the ship detected from the split second glance appeared to be living as cavemen. The First Federation's home world was normal minus all evidence of ever having had an advanced civilization living there.

A few of the worlds had unexpected human populations living in primitive conditions, the ship had dutifully filed away the information from each scan before jumping back into warp as quickly as it had left.

By the time it had reached Earth, the AI had recompiled twice more with updated subroutines. The tentative theory being formed was that in this universe, humanity had an enemy which had systematically dismantled the Federation before it could even start. Each analogue race to the Federation had been methodically destroyed or marginalized to the point where the Heaven's Forge feared it would discover that Earth had been subjected to a similar fate.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Arriving at sol system was a relief for the ship; Earth could be seen hale and hearty. Whole, unharmed, and positively bustling with life, the AI relaxed some of the processes it had been running trying to develop a plan for the possibility of Earth's potential non-existence or destruction in this universe.

After double-checking the cloak, to reassure itself that there was in no danger of the cloak failing. The ship inched out from behind the moon and settled into orbit around the planet. For the most part Earth from this universe was the same as the ship's original universe. There were, of course, a few notable differences. For example, with the public opinion of eugenics programs in the aftermath of world war two, such projects seemed to have ground to a complete halt. And world war three if it was going to happen now appeared to be centered more on tensions in a different part of the world.

With that in mind, the ship set out to make a detailed scan of Earth, in order to pinpoint the era it was currently in more precisely. The major inventions of the last five years, based on the advertisements being broadcast from the comparatively primitive radio and television, were matched with records recovered from Earth's reconstruction with the help of Vulcan after the invention of the warp drive by Cochrane, and gathered information from accidental time travellers. The information was used to help the ship build a more accurate picture of where earth was historically compared to Earth from its own universe.

While it was using the passive sensors to take in all the information being broadcast from radio and other sources, the ship detected high energy emissions in a subspace bandwidth from the land mass known as Great Britain. Knowing that none of Earth's current technology would be able to detect it, the ship moved into a lower geostationary orbit over Britain and switched from the passive sensors to active, the full power of the ship punching through the energy fields that surrounded certain areas.

There were large shielded areas below, under previously unknown energy fields that prevented a portion of the population from noticing them. If the Ship's AI were human, it would have raised its eyebrows at the discovery. And after intense scrutiny of the shielded areas, there was a noticeable lack of advanced technology, or even anything it could recognize as a traditional shield emitter that could be responsible.

Writing off the mystery of the impossible shields for now, the Heaven's Forge used the sensors to locate a room filled with books within some of the buildings hidden under these fields. With the annoying lack of computers or technology of any kind, the ship started scanning the physical books, converting the scanned pages within to a digital format. The sensors would create a detailed model of the position of the atoms that made up the books, converting the ink on each page into digital text and images. It was similar to what the ship's transporter would do when moving people around.

Even with being able to internalize information faster than a normal human possibly could, the process still took time. Three days passed while the ship converted the texts into a format it could use, and the Ship's AI found itself intrigued at the description of spells and mythical creatures on this alternate Earth; It theorized that some yet unknown biological advancement would be responsible for the people born with these odd abilities. As the ship moved back into a higher orbit, it detected what could only be a battle below in one of the shielded zones.

With the information from the reading material incorporated into its database, it repowered the full sensor suite and analyzed the energy being tossed between the two groups to determine what was going on. The ship recognized the form of energy one group was using as the 'unforgivable curses', as defined in the material it had converted into a digital format from this hidden society's government. Not wanting to interfere at this point because of both the regular prime directive and the temporal prime directive even if the temporal directive wasn't really applicable given the changes it had already detected. The ship tagged both groups with nanite transponders, before it moved back into a higher orbit resolving to keep an eye on the situation.

The ship followed this conflict for the next year as it grew steadily worse, so bad that the ship was beginning to run simulations on the effects of beaming the attackers, which it had learned called themselves death eaters, into space. When the night of October 31st, locally known as Halloween approached, it detected that the leader of the group of terrorists had invaded the home of one of those it had tagged. A flicker of white light appeared for a second on the bridge and the ship silently moved into position over the home the ship watched as Voldemort fought with the man as his wife finished some spell over her son in the child's room upstairs.

While Voldemort dueled with James, the ship unpacked a level ten force field generator from storage. Just as the generated finished being assembled, Voldemort managed to catch James of guard with a killing curse stopping his heart. Casting a spell to point him in the right direction, the twisted man calmly proceeded up the stairs; in his determination to complete his objective of the night, he failed to notice as the ship beamed James away leaving a wand and scorched robes behind. Moments later as Tom Riddle twisted his wand at the door to the nursery countering the locking charms; the ship transported the shield generator down, placing it underneath the child's crib as it kept track of Riddle's progress. Unfortunately, the boy's mother had moved outside of the fields range when it activated around the bed with a flash. Voldemort ordered her aside, before growing impatient and flinging the killing curse at the boy's mother halting her heart and then turned towards the green eyed toddler with messy black hair.

Again, Riddle screamed the curse, **Avada Kedavra.** The bolt of brilliant emerald green sped towards the boy, and it hit the shield flaring white, as it was reflected back at Voldemort. The shield had visibly bowed and was barely able to halt the curses forward motion, distorting inward and just barely touched the boy's head leaving him with a jagged bleeding lightning-bolt scar above his eyebrow, and then the field rebounded flinging the combination of exotic particles and energy back at the snake faced man. Voldemort's overtaxed body exploded vaporized by his own overpowered curse that had been twisted and returned by the field it hit.

From the smoldering robes of the violent insurrectionist, rose a dark mist that condensed into an inky black form, sensing the child behind the field, but not the field protecting it. The Riddle's bodiless ethereal form attempted to rush at the green eyed toddler now watching from the crib. As it hit the edge of the shield, the force field flared white again and it let out a howl as a jagged piece of its soul tore off, the smaller piece vaporized by the shield. The shade was repelled by the force field like a projectile from a slingshot, and was ejected with great speed from the house and out into the night.

After following the uncontrolled flight path of the shade's signature, the ship deactivated and removed the field generator and beamed Lily's body up as well. A few minutes later, a large man appeared at the front door to the house. The half-giant proceeded past where James' body should have lain without noticing the lack of body, and up the stairs to the young child's room. Belying his size, he gently picked now crying boy with messy black hair up, and wrapped him in a clean blanket. As he walked back down the stairs, Hagrid was greeted by the boy's godfather.

The ship watched silently as they exchanged words. The smaller man seemed adamant about taking the boy before he backed down and led the larger man to the flying vehicle he had arrived on which was parked just outside the front door.

After both men had left the ruined house, the ship turned its attention to the bodies in the medical stasis pods. The screens flickered for a moment as the sensors detected an unfamiliar energy pattern, the ship wrote it off as a sensor ghost and then activated the EMH and had both examined, listening as the hologram determined that their hearts could be restarted. But it would take time for the neural pathways to be reconnected which would restore their memories. The procedure could be done while they were in stasis so they wouldn't age while they were comatose. To keep up appearances the ship replicated their bodies, and sent the copies back into the house. The Heaven's Forge having done all it could for the moment returned to its higher orbit.

The small green eyed toddler seemed to be fine with his relatives where the large man had met up with an older wizard, presumably under the orders of the older wizard. So the ship continued to monitor the boy and his parent's waiting for them to stabilize so it could reunite them.

Over the next few years since the Heaven's Forge had saved the young Potter boy, the ship would notice a brief sensor echo in the log that would show up for a short time before disappearing. Since the anomaly didn't stick around long, the ship stuck to noting each occurrence and filing sensor data for each instance.

After the seventh time, it determined the anomaly was caused by a form of slipstream drive, indicating the presence of an advanced race. Despite its weaponry, it was an engineering ship, and the presence of slipstream technology was enticing. However, it was currently cloaked and waiting for a suitable captain from a federation race, so the AI grudgingly decided to just keep watching for more information.

Since the ship was phased, it would be unlikely for it to be detected by what was likely this universe's replacement for the Vulcan's checking up on what to them would be the primitive race of humanity. Given that when the ship had passed Vulcan's system, it had detected a black hole something that still gave it pause.

The ship settled into its vigil over the planet so similar and at the same time very different from the one where its design had been dreamed and built.

** Act 2: Interfering with the locals **

"Space... The final frontier," the voice of Patrick Stewart announced from the TV in the living room, as the musical score from the opening sequence played in the background. An almost eight year old harry listened from his cupboard. Sometimes, his cousin Dudley left the TV on in the afternoon, and Harry would get blamed for it, even if he was out doing the chores that no normal person in their right mind would have assigned a nearly eight year old.

If he was lucky his aunt wouldn't turn it off today, and he would be able to listen to the entire episode. Star trek was about as far away from the word Magic as you could get in the Dursley house. Even if it dealt with the strange and unusual, it was one of the few TV series that wouldn't be immediately turned off in the elder Dursley's presence, and one of the few that he'd actually been able to watch a few times without getting caught.

The series was only a year old, having started the month after his seventh birthday. Some nights he liked to lie there and imagine that he was a member of an away team caught by hostile natives. He liked to imagine that his relatives were only superstitious primitives. That their fear of anything odd that happened around him which would cause his aunt to go white and hiss something about unnaturalness under her breath, or his uncle to go that funny shade of red and sputter in rage, was only a lack of understanding the science involved behind the feat.

Not that he could explain why his teacher's hair turned blue after he got upset with his cousin for hitting him in the back of the head with wadded up balls of paper coated in the slime that was Dudley's saliva. Nor could he explain how he had ended up on the roof without going through the very essential step of climbing the fire escape ladder.

He lay there staring into the dark of his slightly cramped crawlspace under the stairs. A single incandescent bulb set into a fixture that was purely utilitarian, dark until his aunt would flick the switch to let him know she expected him to be dressed and ready to proceed with whatever monotonous task was on the top of her head. He remembered reading a few of the books following the original series on the few times he was able to spend time in the local library.

He was sure that the only reason they had allowed him go to the local primary school was because one of the neighbors had mentioned his existence when they took Dudley for registration.

He listened carefully to the story unfolding on the screen of the television on the other side of his door. As the show was ending, he used his right hand to tap the spot over his heart, following the motion he'd seen away teams perform when initiating communication with the ship.

"Emergency beam out" he said softly hoping he was quiet enough that his relatives wouldn't hear him. He held his eyes closed tightly and imagined the light of the transporter playing over his body as it removed him from the hated home of his relatives.

This was the first time he'd used that particular command phrase, unlike the dozens of times before when he had performed similar actions since the show first came on. He let his breath out in disappointment, sighing as nothing happened.

High above the house in geosynchronous orbit over the freakishly spotless supposedly normal home of the Dursleys, the starship Heaven's Forge had recently returned from a four year long survey of the surrounding space, a survey undertaken when the ship decided things were stable enough for it to take a break from watching over the Earth. The nanite transponder embedded in the soft tissue underneath were the boy had pressed had activated. It was broadcasting the emergency beam out signal over the channel that the ship normally used as a data link to monitor anyone tagged while it was in the system.

The ship wondered how the child had managed to activate the emergency beacon mode of the small implant, it couldn't have known the command phrase and even then, the implant shouldn't have been able to activate in response to his command as it should have been in surveillance mode. The AI on board ran a dozen scenarios and calculated the risk of answering the request. It made the decision just a few minutes before the signal cut off.

Harry dropped his hand from over his heart and wondered why he suddenly felt exhausted. Just as he opened his eyes, he saw the glow of the transporter's energy field surround him. A brief tugging sensation later and he found himself standing in the transporter room onboard the Heaven's Forge.

Normally if one were to go by the ships database, a seven almost eight year old from twentieth century Earth, shouldn't have been able to understand, let alone form an intelligent thought about the process that had just happened.

Harry though, had spent the last year diligently watching a TV show called Star Trek since it premiered. It had been the only thing that kept his thirst for knowledge alive. His aunt and uncle did their best to train him like a dog to keep his head down, to be not just ordinary but mediocre.

Ironic that his mundane relatives would want him to be ignorant of the world, considering he wouldn't have had any interest in science had he grown up in the wizarding world with his parents or godfather. Well maybe Lily, his mother would have fostered such interests, but she wasn't there. As it was at this point in his life, he was a veritable genius compared to the average of his age group. He had already started to downplay his aptitude for his studies given the looks his aunt and uncle had thrown his way the first report card which showed him to clearly be ahead of his brute of a cousin.

As it was though, his mind which was currently in perfect working order went into overdrive as he processed the situation around him with wide eyes and a childish delight.

He called out in his best impression of a commanding tone, which was probably even squeakier than the child version of the fictional Captain Picard. "Computer, please state the designation of this vessel."

"This vessel is designated as the U.S.S. Heaven's Forge, N.C.C. 104379," a computerized gender neutral voice replied.

Harry looked curious at the designation and asked, "Computer who is the commanding officer on board?"

The ship was silent for a moment, before responding, "You are."

Harry was surprised by the answer, "Explain?"

"Approximately thirteen standard years ago this vessel entered a subspace rift in an effort to seal the tear by pulling it closed from within. This was the most favorable scenario that could be calculated with such short notice. During transit, in the void within the rift, the remaining crew died."

After a brief pause the ship's AI continued, "As the first human to board and with the proper command phrase this vessel is effectively under your command until or unless you relinquish command or a higher ranking Starfleet officer removes you from its command."

"I think I'm in need of medical attention." he blinked, rubbing his eyes, feeling weak going from having been in a cramped position for too long, to standing in a large open, and well lit room.

"Medical is on deck four, please follow the green arrows on the displays along the walls."

Harry stepped out of the transporter room into the brightly lit hallway. Everything was clean and shiny, and while the cleanliness would have reminded him of his aunt's house, the corridor held a completely different feel. The carpet underfoot was a rich blue bordered in a light bronze. The corridor had a high ceiling. The walls were a polished light blue metal. Paneled white lighting gave everything a warm glow, along the middle of the wall just low enough that he could reach if he stretched were touch screen panels. They were lit with green arrows that scrolled across the display leading him down the corridor.

He followed them through several junctions with corridors that crossed the path until he reached a corner with a door. As he walked up to the door, it opened with a slight hiss he associated with the sliding doors. He stepped into the turbolift and called out "deck four" before slumping against the back wall of the turbolift.

A short minute later, the turbolift came to a halt and the door opened to reveal a familiar looking corridor. The only difference between the one he just left and the one before him was the large number four painted in a dark blue on the wall opposite the turbolift.

As he stepped out of the turbolift, the black panels on the walls lit up again with the arrows scrolling towards his destination.

A short time later, he reached the door and called out, as dizziness clouded his mind, "Computer, where is everyone?" He collapsed a moment later.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

As he came to, he found himself lying comfortably on one of the biobeds the display overhead happily chirping away in time to his various biological processes. 'This wasn't right' the thought flitted across his mind. He wasn't in his cupboard. He'd never been this comfortable on the ancient camp cot that was somehow squeezed into the small space underneath the stairs.

He sat up and the EMH walked over. "I see you're up young man." The image of a country doctor by the name of McCoy said with a southern drawl.

Harry giggled, "You talk funny."

'Did that really just come out of my mouth?' He thought with a bit of indignation at his childish giggle and speech.

The EMH mock scolded back holding back from laughing as it raised an eyebrow, "Young man, I'll have you know this is my finest southern drawl."

Both ended up laughing for a few minutes.

"Alright," Harry said in between trying to catch his breath, "so, am I gonna live doc?"

Taking a breath he began, "I'm of half a mind to tell the ship to beam the people who did this to you into space. Your showing advanced stages of malnourishment . . ." he trailed off seeing the slightly blank look on the boy's face. "You weren't fed enough. You look like a prison camp survivor, and your bones must have been broken a dozen times and healed without proper setting, they're brittle I don't know how your body is holding itself together kid. That nasty scar on your forehead has some exotic contaminant preventing it from healing properly. We can easily rid you of the scar, the rest of it, well; I've got several options we can work with."

"Son, I can't keep calling you pronouns. What's your name?"

"It's Harry sir, Harry Potter."

"Well Harry, its Bones, McCoy or Dr. McCoy. Not sir."

"Yes sir, I mean... Bones, sir," Harry said quickly.

The EMH gave him a stern look before softening, "That's better. Now, I don't expect you to completely understand all of this, so I'll try to explain it simply, if you get confused stop me and I'll try to explain it differently. Okay, Harry?"

Harry grinned and readily agreed, "Okay Bones," before he looked up puzzled, "um... how'd you get here? I thought the computer said everyone was gone."

"I'm a hologram that the ship activated when you collapsed," the medical program told him.

"So, you're not really here?" Harry asked.

"No, I'm here," Bones contended, "Just not flesh and bone like you, can I continue?"

Harry nodded.

"Now, from what I can tell, the reason your scar hasn't healed over completely and faded, is because your body is trying to reject the particles trapped just beneath the surface and push them out. The quick and dirty method, I can give you a painkiller and physically cut the damaged scar tissue away and then regenerate the skin there. Or a slightly more involved method, I can send you through the transporter again and have it remove the bad stuff before returning you unharmed. My namesake would be rolling in his grave at the transporter option, but I personally recommend the transporter, as I can also use it to reset some other issues," the EMH offered.

"Transporter then," Harry said with a sigh.

The McCoy EMH walked over to the desk in the office and pulled a mobile emitter from one of the drawers. "This is a mobile holographic emitter, while most of the important areas of the ship are covered by holographic emitters; there are a few areas that aren't so I need this if I want to actually walk around with you."

The journey back down to the transporter room and back took just over an hour. Harry had stepped onto the transporter pad with no small amount of trepidation and disappeared into the swirl of lights and color. It took several minutes in the buffer for the computer to locate and destroy each of the exotic particles that had contaminated his scar, and once the sensors reported they were all gone, he re-materialized on the transporter pad and collapsed into the arms of the waiting hologram.

The scar on his forehead no longer looked angry and just this side of infected but now had a light layer of blood. Back in sickbay now, McCoy grabbed the dermal regenerator from his portable medkit and passed it over the cut a few times, then wiped the blood from the surface of Harry's skin with a wet cloth, leaving a pale white line of newly regenerated healthy skin tissue.

Back in the medbay now, McCoy passed the scanner over Harry again. "You're all clean of the exotic particles. Next, correcting the lack of food."

McCoy looked him over before checking to see what time it would have been back at Harry's home on Earth, "It's nearing what should normally be dinner time for you back home, is there anything specific you would like for dinner Harry?"

"Yeah, I've always wanted to try pizza!" Harry exclaimed excitedly.

"Pizza it is." Bones walked over to the replicator and came back with a small personal pizza for Harry. He set it on one of the bedside trays and pushed it up to the edge of the Biobed he had Harry sitting on. He went back into the office and returned with a plate of holo-food, some kind of American dish. "If you want to try something on my plate you'll have to get it from the replicator, as this is holographic, there's no substance to it but light and force-fields, I just don't want you to feel awkward eating on your own in front of me so I'm joining you."

In an effort to allow the EMH to integrate with crew socially, the Starfleet corps of engineers had developed holographic food. Or rather, they brought existing holographic foods off the holodeck and into the other areas of the ship that the EMH could access. It was still in the experimental stages as the subroutines responsible for giving the EMH a sense of taste where a little off sometimes. But as a whole, it was a successful project. It allowed the EMH to attend social events when filling the role of Chief Medical Officer, during times when a replacement CMO wasn't available.

The other improvement of the EMH was a selection of personalities and their respective holo image, mostly due to the acerbic personality of the original prototype EMH. The reason this ship's EMH had the image and personality of Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy was because the former captain's family had served at one time under James T. Kirk. The late captain chose Bones for sentimental reasons. Although he left the phobia, the late McCoy had for transporters turned off.

** Act 3: Holo Academy **

While Harry had been asleep, the ship had been intercepting communications and entertainment signals, catching up on what it had missed, having spent a lot of time out surveying. It discovered the TV show that bore a close resemblance to the historical database it had on board, though Patrick Stewart only bore a passing resemblance to the images of Captain Picard. The AI paused as it wrapped its processes around the data. When it first emerged from the rift, it started as a basic AI with a set of directives. But as it revised itself to deal with the new circumstance, the changes to the programming slowly became unstable, co-opting portions of the saved transporter data from the bodies of the deceased crew until the AI put everything on autopilot and stopped to recompile itself.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Harry remembered nodding off to sleep after he finished eating his very first pizza and not just any pizza but a personal pizza made just for him.

The lights in Sick bay were dimmed slightly; Harry recognized that Bones must have turned them down for him after he fell asleep.

"Bones?" he called out. The holographic doctor shimmered into existence a few feet away.

"Good morning Harry, I deactivated myself last night after you fell asleep. The computer can reactivate me by calling my name or saying the traditional phrase about activating the EMH." the McCoy EMH greeted the boy.

"What time is it?" Harry asked.

"O **'** six hundred" Bones replied.

Harry yawned, and his stomach growled loudly, "Sorry," he apologized.

"No need to apologize Harry, you **'** re a growing boy, and a hungry one at that. Use the replicator alcove by the door, and you can have whatever you want, though I advise you go with something light and that you snack throughout the day. We need to stretch your stomach so you can handle larger portions."

"Okay," Harry climbed down from the biobed and sleepily walked over to the replicator. Hesitating, he placed his order, looking over his shoulder at McCoy for each choice who nodded at him encouragingly. "Um, two slices of bacon, buttered toast, and a scrambled egg, and a glass of milk cold."

"There are over 300 different varieties of milk, several of which are from Earth, please specify," came a canned response from the replicator.

Feeling equal parts overwhelmed and adventurous Harry asked, "List a few Earth selections please."

"Some milk beverages from earth are, Almond milk with sub selection flavors vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, sweetened and unsweetened, Rice milk same sub selections as previous, Soy with same selections as previous, Cow milk same selections as previous, Coconut —" Harry interrupted the computer.

"Stop, let **'** s try the first one, Almond milk, chocolate flavored, cold." Harry told the computer.

The motes of light swirled in the replicator alcove producing a plate with the specified order. Harry waited patiently for it to finish before grabbing the plate and carefully walking back to the biobed. He set the tray down on the little table. Climbed back onto the bed and sat with his legs dangling over the edge.

As he ate, the doctor highlighted the regimen for treating his malnourishment. "I want you to start slowly, by eating several times throughout the day. The computer will log what you eat and ensure you get the proper nutritional content. At the end of the day, you **'** re to stop by here for a checkup. I **'** ve pulled up the information on gene-mods here," he said handing a tablet over to Harry.

"Ok?" Harry asked confused.

"While genetic science isn **'** t as advanced as it could be, in large part due to the restrictions placed on it after the eugenics war. We do have the basics mapped out and can adjust physical appearance and correct minor defects relatively easy. For example your eyesight can be corrected over a period of a few weeks."

"I guess... I don **'** t really want to change my appearance though." Harry said after moment, McCoy nodded in acceptance not really expecting Harry to be the type to go for physical mods, and a little relieved that he wasn **'** t.

"For your light case of osteoporosis, that **'** s a fancy name for brittle or easy to break bones, I want you eating and drinking plenty of calcium rich items. I also have another option to help speed your recovery." He pulled out a hypo with a silvery liquid. "These are nanites. They **'** re tiny machines smaller than you can normally see. They **'** ve been designed and programmed specifically to help fix the bones you broke which were not properly set. They will also repair any other damage they find after they finish with your bones. You **'** ll need an injection of them before you go to bed for the next three nights. I can also include the treatment for your eyes and any other problems related to your genetics."

"If you aren **'** t comfortable with the idea of using nanites, we can go about this the slightly more painful method, which would involve physically breaking and resetting the problem areas. Now, as much as I enjoy your lovely company in sick bay you're officially the only officer on board and as such, you **'** re the captain of the ship. You **'** ll need to give the ship your command codes and move into the captain's quarters on deck three."

"Since you **'** re not actually qualified to be the captain, yet, I **'** ve taken the liberty of instructing the ship **'** s AI to design the appropriate academy courses for you to take on the holodeck."

Harry wasn **'** t quite certain about leaving sick bay, considering the ship was rather empty, and even if the EMH was only a hologram. The illusion of having a living person who was an adult, a Non-Dursley adult, that he could look to for the adult things, was more than enough to justify sticking around. While he had pretty much taken care of himself growing up, he mainly stayed with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon because they were his legal guardians, and even if he didn **'** t get regular full meals, he was at least fed, clothed, and sheltered. Even if the food had been leftovers and the clothes, large castoffs from his cousin, and the shelter grudgingly given, shelter being the cupboard under the stairs when his cousin had two rooms.

Harry liked being around Dr. McCoy, even with the doctor's atrocious Southern Carolina accent and his somewhat brusque personality. In the short time he **'** d been on board, he had somehow attached his desire for a father figure to the persona presented by Bones. And dare he say it, he wanted McCoy **'** s approval?

Harry finished his meal, cleaned up after himself and followed the doctor who was using his mobile emitter out of sickbay and into the corridor. So far, he **'** d based almost all of his actions since coming on board after what he **'** d seen or rather heard from the show on TV. The ship though while still being recognizably Starfleet, in comparison to what he remembered, was different. It had a slight predatory feel to the sleek design. The color scheme was different from the enterprise he watched on TV, and technology was even more futuristic than the stuff from the show.

The doctor entered the turbolift with Harry and told him, "Harry, when we get to the room place your hand on the panel to the right of the door, say your name and five letters and numbers. That will be your command code, which you must remember at all times. Your command code is used to override door locks or parts of the ship **'** s automated programming. Or to lock things so that no one else can use or get to them without you first removing the lock. The only thing that can override your authority would be if someone higher ranking than you, from Starfleet command, stepped on board the ship and overrode it."

The turbolift stopped and Bones paused as they walked into the corridor before he continued, "If you forget your command code you can come back here and reset it. Remember though, you **'** ll need me or another senior officer to be here to give their command code before you can reset yours."

Harry nodded his n response, before grinning and saying, "got it!"

The EMH smiled at the boy before continuing, "Notice how similar B, V, and T all sound? If the computer is having trouble, picking up your voice it might choose the wrong letter. So, we have a funny, as in interesting, way of saying letters. We use words that start with the letter you want; it **'** s to help ensure the computer accurately recognizes the letter. So we use words that are easily identifiable, such as alpha, bravo, and charlie for a, b, and c."

Harry nodded in understanding.

"If you tell me what letters you want I can give you the word that goes with them." The EMH offered.

"What **'** s to stop someone from just copying me saying the code and playing it back?" Harry asked.

"Sensors, Harry," the EMH said, "the computer matches a scan of your body, a picture of your face, and your voice with ship **'** s records, both for the command and the code before accepting the command. If it **'** s someone else **'** s voice or a recording of your voice giving the command, then the computer won **'** t accept. And just so you don **'** t worry, the computer will automatically update your information on file as your voice changes while you continue to grow up."

They arrived at the captains quarters and the doctor finished his explanation, "If you **'** re inputting the code manually it **'** ll match your fingerprints and body. Some command codes will require both manual and vocal input, while others, will require that you have my assistance or that of another bridge officer or department head, once you have more crew that is. I see this is still all a bit much for you, don **'** t worry though, it **'** ll all become clear with time."

Harry put his hand on the scanner and gave his code he **'** d chosen after discussing it with the doctor, "Potter-Hector-Jacob-eight-zero-sierra-seven, assuming captaincy."

The panel glowed blue for a second before the door swished open. "Well, go on; go explore your new rooms."

Harry was thoroughly in awe of the spacious apartment style quarters. He had his own bedroom, bathroom, lounge and a joined kitchen, slash dining room. What really took his breath away was the large floor to ceiling windows in the lounge that opened to a view of planet earth all blue and green with swirling white clouds.

"Wow," he exclaimed softly, his hands pressed against the transparent aluminum. It was even more awe inspiring in person. He stood in silence for a few minutes just admiring the view.

Harry sent a questioning look at the doctor and the EMH replied. "We **'** re cloaked. Invisible, if that **'** s what you **'** re wondering. Nothing on earth can detect us."

After a few more minutes and a small snack the EMH interjected, "Let **'** s head up to the bridge."

Harry followed the doctor quietly, as he reviewed the rapid series of changes to his life over the past twenty-four hours. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Harry was a very smart young man. He had discovered early on that pushing hard to get good grades in class would only get him in trouble with the people he lived with, and with growing conviction, he decided that they weren **'** t worth the honor of him referring to them as his relatives or family.

He remembered his first progress report home, and the comments it contained from the teacher about how smart and helpful he was in class, how they only served to bring down the ire of Petunia and Vernon. Both of whom accused him of somehow cheating or doing something **'** unnatural **'** to get ahead of their precious **'** diddykins **'**. From that point on he had made it a point to purposely put down the wrong answers, he stopped volunteering information and ceased all efforts to assist fellow classmates in understanding the material.

Harry followed the hologram to the transport booth, listening as the doctor explained the differences between this ship and the one on the television show he had watched. While the ship did have turbolifts that ran its length, it also had site-to-site transport booths that used a combination of stasis fields, dimensional phasing, and tractor beams, to move nearly instantaneously from one booth to the next. They were programmed to ensure they had enough power in an internal buffer for the booth **'** s systems, before initiating a transport, so they could be used in situations where there was a danger of power loss without fear of the process being interrupted while in the middle of a bulkhead.

Unlike the traditional method used in the show to visit planets, which had been replaced about five decades before the ship had been built according to the doctor, the newer method was more reliable, instead of molecular disassembly and reassembly it left everything intact. The ship was still capable of the old style transport as evidenced by the doctor **'** s method of treating Harry **'** s scar, but long term, constant use of that style of transportation had proven hazardous to living tissue.

As soon as the booth **'** s doors opened and someone entered the booth, it would mark itself as not accepting incoming travel unless the people in the booths were indicating a desire to switch places with the person in the other booth. A booth with closed doors, that didn **'** t have anyone inside, would be marked as open for transport.

"You want to give it the command? Works the same as the turbolift, you can select a destination from the display or say the destination out loud."

"Bridge" Harry called out clearly with a grin. His vision went white for a moment before the booth became visible again. The only indication they were in a different location, the sign above the door, which labeled them as being on, Deck 1: Bridge. The sliding door opened and they stepped out onto the brightly lit bridge.

"Over there," the doctor pointed before motioned for him to follow again. "This is the security console you **'** ll have to input your authorization code here to complete the process of taking over."

Harry stepped up to the wide touch screen display and entered his command code.

Bones grinned turning to Harry, "there, now for the next three days or so you **'** re with me. Then you **'** ll go to the holodeck for officer and basic training. While you **'** re in there the ship will activate a time dilation field. You can spend as much time as you need within the holodeck, until your training is done or you end the program. And because of the time dilation field, each year you spend in training will only take three days worth of time out here. The current training regimen is set for three years or a little over a week."

Harry looked up for a moment before returning his gaze to the doctor and saying, "I **'** d feel more comfortable with another three years of training."

"That can be arranged, I **'** ll adjust the program to give you three more years you might need it to cover all the academy material anyway."

"One more thing, I **'** ve managed to recover your birth certificate from the house you were living in." He handed a copy of the yellowed paper over to Harry, "along with a trunk that I had the ship send to your room."

Harry gingerly accepted the folded piece of paper and read it.

Harry James Potter

Born to

Lily Marie Potter nee Evans and James Charlus Potter

On July 31st, 1980

Harry stood staring at the paper with his name printed in an elegant script underneath which were his parents' signatures. A warm feeling settled in his chest as he looked up at the doctor. "Thanks, Bones."

"You **'** re welcome, Harry."

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

The next three days passed in a blur as Harry and the doctor roamed the ship, and Harry learning everything he could. When the time came for him to enter the holodeck and the time-dilation he was a little nervous but the nanites had done their job admirably, his body was well on the way to where it should be at his age.

"I **'** ll transfer myself into the program once it **'** s started," Bones told him. "I **'** ll be the academy chief medical officer," he said before pushing Harry into the room. The door closed shutting out the light from the corridor.

"Computer: start program," he found himself standing in the entryway to the academy. At his feet was a pile of bags typical of a newly arrived cadet. Standing off to the side was another figure almost his size a bit taller than him, he had red hair and was already wearing the academy uniform. "Harry!" The other boy greeted him enthusiastically. "Over here, I **'** m Sky MacKay you **'** ll be rooming with me for the next six years," the boy grinned.

Harry followed Sky to the dorms. Sky was a constant chatterbox pointing out things about the academy to Harry as they walked, and Harry was content to let him. He had to laugh as Sky described the chief medical officer as a grouchy old man. At the end of the tour, Sky showed him his room off of the main common room for the squad.

Remembering a book of names, he **'** d picked up in the library during one of the school assignments about how some names had meanings. Harry **'** s eyes widened.

"So Sky. . ." Harry began.

"Yeah?" the older boy asked with a grin.

"Your name. . . um. . ." he fished for the words.

Sky kept grinning and said while striking a pose, "Sky MacKay, Heavens **'** Son of Fire, or if you **'** re into Latin, Caelum Ignis."

"So. . ?"

"It **'** s probably easier if you don **'** t think about it." And with that, Harry started his first year at Starfleet academy.

With Sky pushing him to do his best and have fun at the same time, Harry stopped holding himself to the low standard Petunia and Vernon had forced him into, and attacked his lessons with an almost Klingon level of vengeance. He worked hard to catch up to where the academy expected everyone to be, and in between studying, let Sky talk him into pulling pranks on the academy as a whole.

Without having to put up with Dudley stopping him he learned how to interact with others, without Petunia or Vernon **'** s unfair punishments he realized just how badly they treated him. At the end of his fourth year of time dilation, he took the unbeatable test, the Kobayashi Maru. In the middle of the test, he felt something push out of him in response to his need and suddenly found himself in direct control of the ship **'** s computer. The ship **'** s power levels returned to full his shields came back up and he turned the ship to face the enemy.

He ordered return fire and the torpedoes passed right through the enemy shields on the screen impacting directly on their warp core.

When the test was finished and the Kobayashi Maru **'** s crew had been rescued he collapsed back into the captain **'** s chair feeling drained. Sky patted him on the back grinning, "I knew you were something kid. Subspace Quantum Energy, or as this decade would call it Zero Point energy, is something Starfleet only just started looking into before the ship got tossed into this reality. You **'** re a living subspace capacitor."

"Sky, what was the point of this exercise?"

"It **'** s to test your reaction to a situation where all your options are taken away. It **'** s an extreme situation, one which is rarely likely, though it has been known to happen. In the words of the test **'** s designer, it's a study in failure, where your weaknesses lie. Instead, you exceeded the test by going past your own limits. True your ship was still badly damaged and your casualties were high. However, you **'** ve accomplished something only two other captains in the known history of the academy have. The first one rewrote the rules of the test; the second used a tricorder-bridge-console interface hack. You used your innate ability to channel zero point energy directly into the ships power grid and mentally interfaced with the computer system to command the results. Something, which I admit, probably would have fried the systems in an older starship."

Sky grinned, "You **'** ve worked hard Harry and I **'** m proud to call you my captain. In fact, you **'** ve pretty much aced all the requirements for graduation from the command track. If you want we can continue for the remaining two years programmed and you can go for the engineer, medical, or sciences tracks."

"If I stop now can I come back later?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, but it **'** ll take a year or two for the buildup of temporal particles to be purged from the time dilation device, and then another month or two for the system to recharge. But you can still run the academy program in real time."

Harry sighed before saying, "Might as well make use of the additional two years worth of compressed time."

"Hey, you can still look through the instruction information we have on your energy abilities in addition to whatever secondary track you take."

"True," Harry said, "but those all say something about needed a wand focus."

"Just the books from the last couple hundred years," Sky replied.

"But, I **'** ll have to learn how to read old English," Harry groaned.

"Quit whining," Sky replied playfully shoving Harry.

Harry laughed, "Ok, I **'** ll do it."

** Act 4: Holo Academy **

A fourteen year old Harry stepped out of the holodeck with a wide grin.

He **'** d been in there for six years and a little over two weeks, so, with the time dilation that had been active while he was in the holodeck, physically he was definitely fourteen.

But technically, judging not by his physical appearance, but by counting from his date of birth to the current date he was still only eight, only having spent two and half weeks real time in the holodeck.

Harry winced, remembering the awkward conversation just before his fifth year in the Academy holo-program. Dr. McCoy had called him in and handed him a small pamphlet labelled, **'** Your body and you **'** and then proceeded to explain to Harry, in the southern drawl Bones favored, exactly what he could expect over the next few years as his body matured.

Harry's cheeks coloured as he remembered that conversation. He couldn **'** t look at any of the other academy students for weeks, regardless that they were all holograms. He shook himself out of the memory and decided that he should probably head to the bridge and read the ships reports and sign off on everything as the commanding officer.

The hardest aspect of his training hadn **'** t been the Starfleet material, as he **'** d originally thought it would be, but just finding the information necessary for mastering his abilities. The real breakthrough had been half-way through his fifth year in the holodeck, when on a whim he asked for the oldest book the ship had scanned and it returned a handwritten script with an unfamiliar alphabet recovered from a scan of a tomb, that had been covered with the unusual energy common for wizards, near Glastonbury Tor. Several searches later through the database had turned up a key similar to the Rosetta Stone containing a block of text in the unfamiliar script, the same block in old English, and then again in Gaelic.

He had played a matching game with the symbols until all of them had a corresponding letter from the alphabet. The script once converted into familiar characters revealed a language that looked very close to Latin though a few words were unfamiliar as the current Latin dictionary had no corresponding word.

The book had provided instruction on meditation and other methods of reaching a state where the mind could tap the energy the body contained. Energy which the book assured Harry anyone could reach and use with motivation, some more quickly and easier than others, but with training still within reach. The only limitation being the persons own preconceptions and willingness to push their own limits.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

While lost in his thoughts the turbolift had arrived at the bridge, Harry moved towards the captain's chair and sat down. He called up a program he **'** d written in the academy that took advantage of the holographic emitters to create a display in front of him at a comfortable distance that contained everything he needed for working.

He started with the oldest entries from right after the ship arrived first, most of the entries were fairly standard, things about beaming up resupply materials from this or that uninhabited planet.

A few were somewhat morbid containing the AI **'** s speculations on why races that it had known didn **'** t exist in this version of the universe. An entry near the beginning of the list caught his eye and he said, "Computer, explain the highlighted entry."

"The skeleton crew who remained onboard to turn the ship around in an effort to reseal the unstable tear died while in transit, their bodies were beamed into the transporter buffer where their existing patterns were saved to the main computer until such a time as they could be restored for a proper burial service." The ship responded in a voice that sounded familiar.

"Why is there an addendum?" Harry asked, motioning at the holographic interface to open the additional entry.

"There have been three distinct instances where sections of the stored information have been lost due to program malfunction." Harry kept trying to remember why the voice sounded familiar.

"Explain." Harry said.

"I've had to modify my programming to cope with increasingly complex situations, unfortunately sometimes the modifications destabilized and in the process of recompiling, portions of the data from the dead crew were incorporated into my internal memory. The process was destructive to the original information," the computer **'** s AI elaborated.

"How many are recoverable," Harry asked.

"Of the 57 data patterns of the crew members that were stored, 38 can be returned."

"Can we use their DNA?" Harry asked, his Starfleet training making him wince only slightly at the thought of using their Genes.

"Cloning technology is currently under restricted access with a twenty seven layer encryption and requires that five command personnel provide override codes to restore access."

Harry scrolled through the entry log, lost in thought. The computer had referred to itself in the first person, the voice sounded familiar, and it wasn **'** t the standard LCARS voice that he remembered from the show.

His thoughts were interrupted as he spotted another entry, "there **'** s a black hole where Vulcan used to be?"

"The phase cloak protected the ship from the gravitational forces while approaching the system; all indications are that the black hole has been there for several thousand years."

"Can **'** t do much to help the Andorians, at their current level they **'** ll be extremely suspicious of any outsiders," Harry said noticing the next few entries, "also a shame that Betazed is gone."

"Analysis of the data is in agreement with your statements." The computer chirped at him.

Harry scrolled down the list some more before asking, "Computer, what **'** s this about two medical stasis chambers being active?"

The interface flickered and reformed to show another entry detailing the actions taken by the ship on October of 1981. Harry looked up in shock. "My parents are alive?"

"Affirmative, they are currently in stasis as their neurons recover from the energy overload." the AI replied.

"Can I see them?" Harry asked nervously.

"You may. However, the EMH estimates that they must remain in stasis for an additional four to seven weeks. You can still view them through the stasis chamber shielding."

Harry jumped up and ran to the transport booth calling to the computer. "Transport me to the nearest booth and give me directions on the way."

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

He spent what must have been hours just staring at their faces underneath the transparent aluminum shielding. The readout over each machine assured him that both were still alive, and the excess energy that had overloaded their brains was dissipating on schedule if slowly.

Finally, realizing nothing could be done to speed up the process; and He would just have to wait for the EMH to determine when it was safe to bring them out of stasis. Harry stood and left the small medical stasis room and returned to the bridge.

Sinking into the captain's chair again, he started using the meditation techniques from the old journal to calm himself. Eventually he managed to push aside his concern and reach the calm at the center where he could think clearly about what he **'** d found.

"Damn, could really use Sky **'** s input," he said, remembering his roommate and the way he **'** d always been able to get to the heart of things, without realizing he **'** d spoken out loud.

"What do ya need Harry?" the voice of his friend for the past six years called out from his side as the red haired trickster shimmered into existence.

"I just found out my parents are alive," Harry said without really noticing that Sky was there, "and, I don **'** t really know what to do."

"About?" Sky asked.

"Them," Harry said pausing as he leaned back before continuing, "them and the ship, and the remains of the Federation races in this universe, and the people I was placed with before that emergency beam out brought me here."

"Take it one day at a time Harry, Bones **'** report said your mum and dad should be ready to wake up in, what, four weeks? Seven at the most? So, wait until you can talk with them. Use the ships sensors to keep track of the Dursleys until then and in the mean time study the material on your abilities." the red haired holo-teen told him.

Harry opened his eyes and sat up straight after his friend's response and looked at him for a moment before saying, "That is really sound advice, and not to lessen the impact, but I thought you were part of the academy program and wouldn **'** t remain active once it ended."

Sky laughed, pointing at him, "You should see your face, and yeah, for a while I thought I was too, but apparently I **'** m not."

Harry narrowed his eyes at the teasing, and then laughed, before asking, "So, how are you here?"

"I **'** m the ship, kind of; sort of anyway, I also remember working on the bridge at one point as a crew member and in engineering as another. It **'** s rather confusing, but I think I **'** m the result of the ship **'** s AI absorbing some of the saved transporter information from the remaining crew that died in the rift." Sky said leaning over the back of Harry **'** s chair.

"No kidding," Harry said giving his friend a look, before returning to the holographic interface that was still open in front of his chair. "Hey! What **'** s this about sensor blips?"

"Oh yeah, those..." Sky said before dropping into a chair next to Harry. "They kept showing up on the edge of the system registering as something similar to the sensor recordings from slipstream technology that Voyager brought back. SCE never could get the bugs out of that style of drive, wounded their professional pride, it did. The largest grouping was recorded shortly after we dropped out of the rift, just after we cloaked and went to warp."

"So, there is a species out there that has access to an FTL drive similar to, if not actual slipstream, and they detected the rift you dropped out of?" Harry asked.

Sky shifted in his seat some more until he was in a position that looked like it should be extremely uncomfortable. "Yeah, that **'** s what the evidence suggests. But I **'** d already activated cloak and I was operating under the return to earth directive at that point. So no attempts were made to stick around and determine if they were peaceful or hostile."

"About that cloak," Harry turned his chair to look at the other boy.

"I thought Starfleet banned the use of cloaking technology." Harry said as he recalled his history lessons on the holodeck.

"Installed by Section 31, without Starfleet approval, I might add, not that I mind that violation of my systems, given that we **'** re making good use of it now." Sky replied one leg draped over the back of the chair and the other dangling over the armrest.

Harry nodded in acceptance before asking, "How are we on resources anyway?"

"Full tank," Sky said, "we were on our way to a big construction project when we encountered that rift. So, we have full storage holds of everything we **'** d need to build one of the larger fully functioning bases on the right planet or a slightly smaller base if it has to have its own life support. But if we wanted to do a proper starbase, we **'** d have to use some of the resources to setup an automated mining base for more materials. We have the standard antimatter engines, standard fusion generators, and an experimental solar plasma collector, also gifted by section 31, as it makes use of the phase based cloak."

Harry grinned, remembering what he **'** d read while in the academy, from some of the more classified reports available to him, "Good old **'** section 31, so very glad they could help us."

"Agreed," Sky grinned. "Though we should keep an eye on the dilithium crystals, they're showing signs of stress and the theta-matrix compositor is out of radiation."

Harry nodded making a note to see if the records of a rich dilithium deposit on one of the moons orbiting Jupiter would prove true in this universe like the ships old one.

"So, we want to do anything about those sensor blips yet?" Harry asked.

Sky hummed for a moment before replying, "You are the captain, but I think we should just keep an eye on them for now."

"Eh, sure," Harry said turning back towards his display and then sighing, "I **'** ve got an appointment with Bones in a little bit."

"Better you than me mate," Sky grinned at him.

Harry laughed and stuck his tongue out.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

"You must be one of the only captains in Starfleet to willingly enter Sickbay for a checkup," Bones said in greeting.

Harry grinned at the country doctor, "Growing up without adequate care, I **'** ve come to truly appreciate the effort you take in ensuring I remain healthy."

Bones motioned for him to sit down on the biobed and ran his scanners over Harry.

"Well, Harry, you **'** ve admirably corrected the problems that were here when you first arrived." the simulated Dr. McCoy held up the tricorder in front of him. "Keep eating healthy and exercising and you should only have to see me on regular checkups or if you get injured on an away mission."

Harry grinned, "Thanks Bones. Oh and if you have any experiments or medical research you **'** d like to do feel free to set your own automatic program activation times, you are the only doctor on board, no sense in letting the facilities go unused."

The EMH grinned; true it was only a program, a simulation of another doctor from another time. But six years of activity on the holodeck being treated like a real person by the other programs had done a lot to help the Doctor expand his program beyond the original settings.

"There are a few things I **'** d like to talk with you about before we call an end to your physical," the EMH told him, while pulling up a seat.

"You enjoy your suspense too much, Bones," Harry said. "Out with it."

"You still have all those lovely little nanites floating around inside you." Bones said, before continuing. "Normally, Starfleet policy would be to remove them, at the earliest opportunity. But as it is, they aren **'** t doing any harm and only you or I can reprogram them. So I **'** d suggest leaving them unless you want them gone."

Harry was silent for a few minutes as he thought about what he should do, "I don **'** t see any harm in leaving them there, they **'** ve been active for six years now without harming me. And I think a few times they actually helped me heal faster, well, faster than my already unbelievable rate of healing at any rate. I think I **'** ve been able to connect with them a few times using my own abilities. Let **'** s leave them be for now."

"Alright then, the other thing I wanted to ask was for a complete genetic profile, I **'** d like to compare your DNA with what we have on file for the average human and see if I can pinpoint the differences that allow for your abilities." Bones said.

Harry smiled recognizing the look in the Doctors eyes, and surrendered to the inevitable, "Alright, just no live experiments without my permission, even if we do need more crew."

The doctor gave him an affronted look, before they both broke into laughter, "I **'** d also like to see about getting scans of any other people down there who have similar abilities, but that can wait."

"I actually agree with you on that, I **'** ll see about getting some detailed scans going, maybe a comparison of the DNA between those underneath the shielded areas and those born to parents that don **'** t display anomalous abilities." Harry replied as he hopped off the biobed. "Oh, and don **'** t forget you can get a DNA profile off my parents in stasis to."

McCoy looked up in surprise, "I had forgotten about them being here." he said before clarifying. "Hey, it **'** s been thirteen years since I examined them, I may be a computer simulated doctor, but I **'** m not perfect dammit."

Harry started laughing at that and said, "Don **'** t worry about it doctor, I **'** m sure you set yourself a reminder to check up on them and if not then I know the ship did."

"Isn **'** t that right Sky?" he called out.

"Um..." came the hesitant response from the hidden speakers.

"You did remember, didn **'** t you?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Maybe?" Sky replied.

Harry left sickbay grumbling under his breath.

Act 5: Family Reunion

The morning after Harry **'** s physical, the EMH called him down to the sickbay.

"What do you need, Bones?" Harry grumbled, in between a yawn. The enthusiastic Dr. McCoy had called his quarters interrupting his sleep.

"I need your permission to contact a few individuals with children living outside of the shielded areas," the doctor told him.

"Would you mind explaining that?" Harry groused, still tired from having been awoken early.

"Harry, I was up late last night and asked for a list of books from that old castle up in Scotland. Hog something or other. Anyway, one of the books on the list caught my eye," Bones said showing him the thin tablet.

"The Magickal Booke of Hogwarts Admittance," he read making sure to pronounce the **'** e **'** on the end of book and the **'** k **'** in magical as sarcastically as possible. "What about it?"

"Somehow, according to other history books, this book contains a self-updating registry of all children in Britain who **'** ve displayed similar abilities to yours." Bones said. "I double checked with the indexed books and while it doesn **'** t hold all of them it does contain those who **'** ve displayed in their terms, **'** sufficient accidental magic, **'** and I **'** d like to match up the names with the British census information and determine a few candidates to approach."

"Why do you want to approach them in person, instead of just scanning them with the ship **'** s sensors?" Harry asked.

"Dammit Harry, I **'** m a doctor not a sensor technician," Bones threw up his hands before they both laughed, "All joking aside, the sensors just don **'** t give the same, feel, as being able to stand there in person and talk with a patient."

"I do know what you mean, Bones," Harry told the doctor, letting out a sigh he continued, "Write up a plan on how we **'** ll choose and contact them and send it to me. Until then, seeing how I **'** m down here and awake, how about I help you get some scans of those underneath the pesky shielded areas. There should be plenty up in Scotland, at that castle this time of year."

Sky took this moment to interject, "That reminds me Harry, from the literature we **'** ve indexed from that shopping area in London; normally you could expect to receive an acceptance letter on the summer of your eleventh year. I'm not sure how their system will work out now that you **'** re older. Or, if you would even want to attend once you find out what they **'** ve written about you."

Harry face palmed, "I don **'** t know if I even want to know."

"Maybe I should add a copy to the academy library, and forward a copy to Jen." Sky teased.

Jen was a girl he **'** d fallen hard for his last year in the academy. Harry flinched and yelled, "You wouldn **'** t."

"I **'** ll just add them to your reading list for you to get to later shall I?" Sky said snickering.

"Them?" Harry asked, "Just how many of these books are there?"

"A whole series," Sky replied.

"Whatever," Harry said turning his attention back to the holographic doctor. "How personal do you want this? I can try and attach a name and computer generated face to each DNA profile or we can just number them in order of receipt."

"Let **'** s just try for names for now, but only if it doesn **'** t take too much time," the doctor replied, happy to have gotten out of manning the sensor console.

Harry grumbled before setting up the console in the medical bay with a list of parameters for copying the name from ink on parchment and matching it with the student carrying the papers. As long as there weren **'** t a large number of students who cheated and regularly carried around another student **'** s work, or were forced or otherwise coerced into doing another student **'** s assignment the system should be able to match things up fine, any problematic listings could be done by hand.

Harry signalled for the ship to move until it was at the optimal range for an accurate sensor sweep of the castle and waited for confirmation before activating the set of instructions he **'** d just programmed.

"There, we should be able to get a decent set of results within a day or two." Harry told the doctor. "Anything else you need?"

"Oh, that **'** s just fine, Harry. Thanks," the EMH told him before shooing him out the door.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Harry was reading a book on his tablet that he **'** d picked from the list of scanned material from the shopping area in London. It had intrigued him because of the doubled shielding around the shelf it was on, and that was not counting the wards around the hidden shopping district.

The book was titled, Magical cultures from around the world, and appeared to be a definitive survey of the various traditions and practices that other cultures had built around magic. It was a little dry for the tastes of a fourteen year old, even one with Starfleet training, but, hey! It had pretty pictures.

"Sky?" Harry called out, setting the thin black tablet down on the grey table in his lounge.

"Yeah, Harry?" the voice of the ship **'** s avatar responded.

"Have you picked up any other anomalous readings besides Britain and Europe?" Harry asked.

"Over a thousand recorded energy signatures that are counter to the established historical record for this time period have been recorded since I arrived, Harry," Sky replied.

"Could you see about getting scans of the heavy concentrations around the world?" Harry asked.

"We **'** ll be finished scanning Hogwarts in three hours, I can establish a search pattern over each major shielded area for cataloguing written records then." Sky offered.

"Set it up," Harry replied, before asking. "Sky, why didn **'** t you scan those areas before? I mean, why did you focus on Britain and not get these in the intervening time since you arrived."

There was a moment of silence before Sky responded, "I **'** m unsure, Harry, it—" Sky **'** s voice trailed off. "Harry, there **'** s an empty spot in my records, from right before I chose to interfere and beam up your parents and directly afterwards lasting for eight minutes total, and there is another empty spot a year later, seven minutes total."

Harry looked alarmed for a moment and asked. "Can you recover those times?"

"I can try, but whatever did this completely scrambled those sections of the memory storage." Sky replied. "I **'** ve finished plotting a course to each of the major recorded areas and matched it with the shopping and schooling locations in that book you had opened. Depending on the amount of material to scan and possible duplicates it could take anywhere from a week to a month."

"Go ahead and proceed with the scheduled flight path as soon as you **'** re finished with the castle." Harry ordered.

"Will do, Harry," Sky confirmed.

Harry leaned back in his recliner and picked the tablet back up to continue reading about the Native American traditions.

** A week later over Egypt... **

"Harry," Sky called out. "Could you report to the Bridge? I think you **'** ll want to see this."

A short time later Harry stepped out of the transporter booth having taken the fast route and used the one down the hall from his quarters, "What have we got Sky?"

"I **'** m picking up what looks like a cloaked tetrahedral shaped spacecraft in the middle of the desert." Sky replied shimmering into existence next to Harry, and pushed a computer generated image of the cloaked ship to the view screen.

"Really?" Harry asked, his eyes widening in surprise. "How big is it?"

"It appears to be about 3.5 meters tall; sensors are detecting a 10 meter telescoping spike that appears to be collapsed. As long as the spike remains in its collapsed state we should be able to fit it comfortably in the starboard shuttle bay." Sky reported twisting the sensor created diagram of the small ship.

Harry grinned, "No surprises on board, right?"

"We **'** ve easily penetrated the cloak and I can assure you the only biomatter on board is the several thousand year old travel rations held in some form of stasis." Sky told Harry, giving him a look that said he would never allow something dangerous onboard.

Harry laughed, motioned toward the screen and said, "Then, by all means. Bring the thing up."

"You want the other pieces of technology hidden in the structure underneath?" Sky asked with a grin.

"Alright, why not, no sense on leaving this stuff lying around." Harry replied with an equally large grin.

Sky turned back towards the display and one by one, the highlighted items disappeared as the ship **'** s teleporters phased them out of their hiding spots and brought them up to the ship. The tetrahedral craft was the last item to go and the sand around it collapsed into the now empty space leaving an odd depression that hadn **'** t been there before.

After a few moments of staring at the successful ship jacking, Harry asked in a concerned tone, "We have holo-emitters in that cargo bay, do we not?"

"Yup," Sky replied still grinning and staring at the crater in the sand. "I **'** ll activate a team of holo-engineers to disassemble the thing after a thorough scan."

"I wonder how well it flies," Harry said, having discovered his love of slinging around the sky in a smaller craft.

"Probably like a pig on stilts," Sky snorted.

Harry laughed, "You **'** re just biased in favor of the Heaven's Forge."

Sky stuck his tongue out at Harry before laughing and shimmering out of existence.

"Hey!" Harry called out, "Where **'** d you stick the other toys?"

"In the cargo bay off of the shuttle bay," Sky replied.

"How close are we to being finished with the scans?" Harry asked. "And come back here I look silly talking to nothing."

Sky grumbled and then reappeared on the bridge. "I was only examining the shiny new toy in my shuttle bay."

"Well?" Harry asked again.

"Still have the remainder of Africa then the Eastern countries, Japan, China Australia and then we **'** re finished. So, maybe halfway," Sky said squinting off into nothing.

"Nothing of interest on Antarctica?" Harry said half joking.

"Well now that you mention it," Sky said, and froze, before sighing in frustration, "the scans of that continent were somewhat corrupted, half the continent registers as lava to the saved scan," he looked crestfallen as he slumped forward.

"Don **'** t worry about it, we **'** ll just take another scan and then having likely found nothing of interest, completely ignore the area." Harry said, only half joking about finding nothing.

Harry put an arm around his friend's neck and steering them towards the transport booth said, "Shall we away to our shiny brand new, ancient Egyptian toy?"

Sky perked up, "sure!"

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

The two holograms and one fourteen year old human sat down at the conference table, Harry spoke up first, "Let **'** s get this staff meeting over with shall we?"

Sky draped over his chair looked up and said, "Yeah, these things are kinda dull."

"I do have a few experiments I **'** d like to check on," Bones temporized.

"Right, then, Bones you **'** re up first with your status report on the DNA mapping project." Harry said.

"I **'** ve indexed the ones you scanned from Hog-whatever, I **'** d still like to get some from those registered in the British government **'** s census office." the doctor said before turning to Sky, "And would you please sit up normally, you **'** re the sentient avatar of a starship not a hyperactive ten year old."

"Alright," Sky grumbled untangling himself and sitting down properly, while Harry laughed silently. Sky shot him a glare before grinning.

"Thanks, Bones, I **'** ve looked over your proposal and can tentatively agree to start picking candidates for contact." Harry said. "Though, I **'** m reluctant to do so, given the weight of evidence supporting the prime directive. I am willing to take the risk because, one, no Starfleet command to worry about second guessing my decision, and two, I think we can agree from the starship sitting in the starboard shuttle bay that the prime directive has been shot to hell as far as we **'** re concerned."

Bones smiled happily, and made a note in his files as Harry continued, "Sky, what **'** s the report on that ship."

"The technology uses crystal rods that are remarkably similar to the isolinear rods the Cardassians use, but there are a few distinct differences in chemical composition and how they **'** re being used. The rods appear to be crystalline in nature with slight structural changes to denote stored information and programmed instructions. Barring physical damage or overload they could conceivably be used without maintenance for millennia."

"We disabled power to a set of rings inside the ship, and another set that we found in the group of items that were transported to the cargo bay, that sensors readings and computer simulations say will send a phased stasis package in a straight vertical line from one set to another. They **'** re very similar to the transport booths we have onboard, though we haven **'** t been able to access their programming yet."

"The biggest surprise is an old slipstream drive, I assume its old as the current analysis puts it at being capable of speeds up to warp six even though we know slipstream should be able to travel well above that." Sky reported.

"Awesome, how soon do you think we can prototype a version of the drive for ourselves?" Harry asked.

"If you want it to last, then I **'** ll need a team of real engineers working with me and a few months to a year, otherwise I could just rip the drive out and hook it up to the ship today, but, there would be no guarantees it would work properly." Sky replied.

"Ok, I **'** m happy with just having the thing to examine at this point," Harry said before turning to the doctor. "Going back to you Bones, what **'** s the status on my parents?"

"Brain scans are back within normal range, I checked on them before the meeting, we can revive them any time." Bones said.

"That **'** s brilliant!" Harry said grinning. "Well if there **'** s nothing else to report, I **'** d like to adjourn this meeting in favor of waking my parents up."

"Meet you there!" Sky grinned and jumped out of the chair shimmering out of existence.

"Show off," Harry laughed, while Bones grumbled. "Why don **'** t you go ahead and transfer yourself to the stasis room, Bones, I **'** ll be there as fast as I can get to the transport booth.

The doctor nodded and transferred his program, appearing next to Sky in the room where Harry **'** s parents were in stasis.

"Thought you **'** d walk with him," Sky said to the doctor.

"He sent me on ahead," Bones replied. "I think as much as he **'** s been looking forward to this he **'** s also afraid."

"Yeah, but since we **'** re here already, he has to show," Sky pointed out.

Bones smiled, "He **'** ll be ok," he said before turning to Sky and teasing, "You, however, drive me insane."

"You know you enjoy having someone to argue with," Sky replied grinning in return.

McCoy sighed. "I don **'** t know what I expected. In some ways I think, I might actually prefer that overgrown computer Spock."

Sky laughed, "Yeah but just for a moment try to imagine me pulling that argument."

Sky stood up straight and cleared his throat before saying, "Has it occurred to you, that there is a certain, inefficiency, in constantly questioning me on things you **'** ve already made up your mind about?"

McCoy shivered, "You **'** re right, I think I prefer a more emotional you."

Act 6: Uncle Q

Harry walked down the hallway towards the transport booth as slowly as he could. He really wanted his mom and dad back, but he also felt uneasy, unsure if he actually wanted them back _now_.

He wondered how it would have been had they raised him. He doubted it would have been like the Dursley **'** s, while six years on the holodeck did wonders for him and he only dimly remembered their _tender_ care, the sensor recordings of how they were raising his cousin appalled him. Would his parents have raised him to be a fat, and spoiled, bully? He really hoped not.

Harry slumped against the wall of the transport booth for a second. If he was honest with himself, he had to admit that he was afraid; that they wouldn **'** t approve of what he **'** d done so far; that they **'** d want to go back down to Earth, and bring him along with, that he **'** d be under their control, unable to return the ship, or see the stars from this perspective again.

It was irrational, he knew it, but the doubt was still there. Getting down to it, he was afraid his parents would want to step right back in where they **'** d left off, that he would no longer be in control of the situation. He **'** d been safe and in control of his life, since he became captain and he didn **'** t want to lose that.

Sky remotely activated the transport booth without Harry calling out the destination and Harry picked himself up and started walking again. Sky **'** s voice spoke from the concealed speakers in the ceiling, "Harry, it's ok. You **'** re my captain, and... Well, you **'** re **MY** captain."

That simple phrase was enough reassurance, for Harry who was currently standing outside the medical stasis bay, staring at the door uncertainly. He straightened himself up and walked through the door.

"Dr. McCoy, Sky," he said nodding to the two. "Let **'** s wake them up, shall we?"

The two hit the buttons to shut down the stasis field and wake the occupants. Harry watched silently as the transparent shield slid away to reveal the peacefully sleeping forms of Lily and James.

James **'** eyes flickered and he mumbled, "Lily," before sitting up too quickly and bumping his head on the lip of the stasis pod. "Lils!" he yelled in between **'** ouches **'** of pain, watery eyes.

Lily sat up a bit more gracefully than James, somehow managed to avoid the lip that James bumped his head on and exclaimed, "Not Harry!"

Harry froze up feeling as much as hearing the emotions in their voice, until Sky pushed him forwards.

"Harry?" Lily asked in shock, seeing Harry, recognizing the brilliant green eyes and features of her son, drawing the only logical conclusion she could.

Harry nodded hesitantly.

"Harry? You **'** ve grown so much," she tried again, as James finished rubbing his aching head and started to see what was actually around them.

Harry nodded his throat suddenly dry.

"Lils are we dead?" James asked. "I distinctly remember a killing curse hitting me."

Harry shook his head. "You **'** ve been in stasis, err in a state of suspended... um— in a coma?" he fumbled for the words.

"Son?" James asked reaching out to touch Harry, unsure if he was seeing things.

Harry finally settled on **'** coma **'** and continued, "You **'** ve been in a coma for the past eight years."

Lily looked at him closely. "Harry, you look older than eight." She lightly touched his arm, as though the contact with his skin would cause him to dissolve, or regress in age back to the child she remembered holding not long ago.

"Time compression, six years worth in two and a half weeks," Harry said.

James looked at him. "That **'** s usually restricted magic."

Harry shook his head. "Advanced non-magical technology, though, I do remember a quote about sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic, and it does utilize a similar subspace wavelength, so I guess classifying it as magic isn **'** t entirely incorrect."

"Lils, did Padfoot and Moony decide to prank us after watching too much of that muggle scifi?" James asked, his son **'** s explanation making just enough sense to confuse him even further. "That would be so something they **'** d do." James finally noticed Harry, beyond just seeing a relatively James shaped person, in an odd uniform. "Harry, why are you wearing pajamas?" he asked uncertainly.

"So says the man in the dress," Harry snarked on reflex, before straightening his shirt and replying seriously, "Basic duty uniform."

"Huh, I still think it looks like pajamas," James joked.

Lily reached over and smacked him, "James be nice." before she snagged Harry **'** s hand and pulled him close, and wrapping him in a rib crushing hug, tears raining down her cheeks. "I **'** m so happy to see you **'** re alright!"

James may have had a thick skull, but never let it be said he didn **'** t care just as much as his wife did. The facts finally started to sink in and he joined the hug starting to weep happily. They **'** d been attacked by Voldemort and they **'** d survived! His family was alive!

Harry was uncomfortable calling them mom and dad, he tried to think of what to say before giving up and with a red face saying, "Mum, Dad, you **'** re crushing me here."

"You may want to shower and change," Bones said, interrupting and saving Harry from the embarrassment. He stepped forward with a set of civilian uniforms in their sizes, setting them next to Lily. "The shower is through that door. Everything can be voice controlled and defaults to Celsius measurements. Do either of you need assistance getting your feet back under you?" he asked.

James shakily stood up. "I think I **'** ve got it, feels like I **'** ve been hit with a weak jelly legs jinx, though."

Lily stood up a moment later still clinging to Harry. "A shower sounds wonderful."

Harry squirmed out from under their grip, scrambling back over to Sky. "Just call out my name, out loud, when you **'** re ready to talk again," he yelled over his shoulder, pulling Sky out into the hallway as he retreated from the unfamiliar and nearly overwhelming emotional situation he **'** d just experienced.

Bones sighed, chuckling. "That boy, he **'** s still uncomfortably shy when it comes to physical contact," He turned back to Lily. "I **'** ll need to talk with you about him, both of you. I **'** m sure you have a great deal of questions, are there any you **'** d like to ask now?"

The two looked at him blankly for a moment, as often happens when a doctor asks that question their minds went blank.

"I **'** ll be just down the hall at the main medical facility if you need anything just yell for Doctor McCoy."

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Harry turned to Sky shaking off the remains of his emotional turmoil and asked, "Did you get the Antarctica scans redone?"

"Yeah, ice, more ice, and miles upon miles, of nothing but ice, though there was this tiny little thing that you might call interesting," Sky said teasing Harry.

"Really?" Harry asked excitedly. "What **'** ve you got?"

"Nothing much, just a metal ring big enough to fly a shuttle through made out of the same material as that ship we found in Egypt," Sky said grinning.

"We **'** re finished with indexing the major magical shopping districts, right?" Harry asked.

Sky paused for a moment getting the information, "Finished early this morning, still processing the recordings into a digital format though."

"Move us over Antarctica then and get a deep scan of that ring and the surrounding area for a mile or so," Harry ordered.

"Moving us now Captain," Sky said after a moment of looking blankly off into the distance with a grin.

**A few minutes later on the bridge...**

Harry looked at the image of the frozen tundra on the view screen. "Sky, can you give me that cool computer generated view again?"

"Sure," Sky replied shimmering back into existence as the view screen switched to show an image of the approximate location of the ring about three meters beneath the ice.

After a few seconds, the frozen remains of two humanoid soldiers joined it a short distance away and next to that was a pedestal with rows of buttons around a central orb.

"There **'** s no chance those soldiers are just in a form of stasis right?" Harry asked.

"Scans indicate they **'** re completely desiccated, Harry," Sky replied. "All moisture has been removed from their bodies and they **'** re quite dead, including that odd snake-like creature in the pouch in their stomachs."

"Alright continue scanning the surrounding area and prepare to transport the artifacts and their remains up to the cargo bay," Harry said.

"Transporting," Sky said and the display shifted to show the items shimmer out of existence one by one.

"Harry, I **'** m picking up an extremely weak life sign just within range of the scan," Sky said after a moment.

"Move us closer," Harry ordered.

"There **'** s a humanoid frozen just under the ice," Sky said transferring the image to the view screen.

"Beam them to sickbay," Harry said.

"Using the old style due to interference with the phasing systems and the ice," Sky reported. "Transporting now."

An alarm sounded. "Harry she **'** s being held in the transport buffer, the system detected an unknown contaminant."

"Can you filter it out?" Harry asked.

"Scanning," Sky replied. "It **'** ll take some time, but we should be able to eliminate the viral agent."

"See if you can separate some out into a secondary buffer and transfer it into a biohazard container with a level 10 force field around it for Doctor McCoy to analyze," Harry said.

"Will do," Sky reported fingers dancing over the transporter control console he **'** d pulled up on one of the bridge consoles.

Harry watched his own version of the transporter controls as the red highlighted areas disappeared, transferred into the neighboring buffer after it looked like they **'** d gotten them all he called out to Sky, "Scan and see if there were any dormant or sealed versions of those things."

The screen shifted and a much smaller number of particles went from blue to red. Sky shifted and swore, "Nasty!" hitting a few more commands and watching as those two were pulled into the neighboring buffer.

"One more scan, I think," Harry said, "I **'** m not risking more of those little things escaping notice, if it **'** s not part of her body atomize it and then beam her directly to a covered biobed in sickbay."

"Replicating the container and force field generator now," Sky reported and then a few seconds later. "All of the contaminants have been transferred to the container and the buffers purged, I **'** m sterilizing the transporter pad for extra safety."

"Doctor McCoy reports his patient is being treated now."

Harry sighed in relief.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Doctor McCoy applied a hypospray to his new patient's neck, before activated the stasis feature of the biobed. The biobed would slowly and safely normalize his patient's core temperature until it was back to room temperature before notifying him so he could be there when she awoke.

The computer alerted him that James and Lily had finished and had called his name. Opening a comm. channel he replied, "I **'** ll be right there."

Walking back down the corridor to the stasis room McCoy sighed in relief that he **'** d managed to finish working on the frozen woman before they **'** d called.

He entered the room to find them both flushed and dressed, though their hair was still damp. "How about we take this to my office?"

"Lead the way," James offered.

Back in McCoy **'** s office, once they were seated and a few light refreshments served, McCoy asked, "I need to know what your wishes were for Harry in the event of your incapacitation or death."

James and Lily looked at each other, feeling like they would dread where the conversation was heading. James spoke up first, "My best friend Sirius is, or was, his godfather."

Lily was pale. "We had a list of people we knew, who would be capable of caring for him."

"Was your sister on that list?" McCoy asked.

"God no, she overfed every goldfish she ever owned, all of **'** em went belly up within a week. I wouldn **'** t trust her to watch my cat, and that **'** s without taking into account her charming personality and feelings about **'** my kind. **'** Hah, she even claimed I was adopted a few times, rather than admit we were related," Lily said without humor.

"Well, I can set those rumors to rest, sadly enough she is related to you." McCoy sighed, the attempt at humor falling flat.

"Since you **'** re asking then he must have been placed with—" Lily trailed off.

"Now, don **'** t get worked up over it, he **'** s been removed from that situation for six years now," McCoy tried to calm her.

"That still means he was with her for, how long?" Lily asked, glaring at him.

"A little under seven years," McCoy sighed.

"When I find the person whose brilliant idea it was to send him there," Lily seethed.

James interrupted, "I **'** ll be right with you dear, we can talk with Dumbledore, he **'** ll help us find the bastard!"

"About Harry," McCoy said trying to drag the conversation back on track.

"Yes?" Lily asked dangerously.

"He **'** s been trained and evaluated for the past six years as a potential captain, he **'** s earned the rank, and he **'** s been looking after himself for longer than that," McCoy told them. "You are his parents, true, but what he needs right now isn **'** t smothering or physical contact, but support and affirmation of the decisions he **'** s making right now."

"Like it or not, he **'** s no longer the one year old you remember needing everything done for him," McCoy sighed. "He **'** s healed a lot since he first got here, and, I know he wants you to be a part of his life. Just remember to treat him as his own person, fully capable of making his own choices."

"Lils," James said holding his wife **'** s hand.

"I **...** I thought we **'** d at least have until he grad—graduated from Hogwarts to hear that," she sobbed, numbly.

McCoy smiled grimly. "Because, you need to know he is currently the most educated human in the galaxy, or at least in our corner of it, and he **'** s also in command of technology capable of turning every planet in the solar system into a life supporting greenhouses or rendering the Earth into a barren rock."

"I **...** I think we need to know more," James said.

"Tell you what," McCoy said. "Why don **'** t you take the academy courses on the holodeck, during the day and in the evenings you can spend time getting to know the person Harry has become."

James looked to Lily who nodded, "We **'** ll talk with Harry before deciding anything, right?"

 **Omake:** Harry was sitting in his captain's chair tossing a small ball at the view screen and catching it on the rebound.

"So, bored," he grumbled, Sky was off playing with the alien ship in the shuttle bay, and Bones was buried in a census report and scans of the children who registered as magical but lived outside of the preview of the magical society, and Harry was all studied out. His parents were treating this as a second honeymoon and had sequestered themselves in their rooms for; he shuddered at the thought, nookie.

He was starting to wish something interesting would happen.

He sat up and looked around the bridge before sighing and slumping back into his chair.

"Oh this won **'** t do, this just won **'** t do at all," came a voice from behind him.

Harry jumping up, whirling around to see whom it was, standing by the turbolift door was the spitting image of John de Lancie.

"Uncle Q!" Harry shouted running towards the man, and tackling him in a hug.

"Well that **'** s not the usual reaction I get," Q laughed. "Picard was always, **'** get off my ship **'** and Janeway..." Q trailed off, "That woman was a ..." Q let out a soft growl, before turning back to the teen hugging him, "I **'** ll take it though!"

"Sign up for Starfleet, they said. See the galaxy, they said." Harry was grumbling. "You have no idea how boring it is sitting up here doing nothing Q." before looking up and then amending his statement, "Well, maybe you do."

"Aww, cheer up kiddo," Q said patting Harry who was still wrapped around him on the head. "It can **'** t be that bad can it?"

"I **'** m hugging you, and generally behaving as if your my most favorite person in the universe right now," Harry said not relaxing his grip any.

"Must be bad then," Q grimaced. "Not to worry, I **'** m sure we can find something to do in this universe."

 **A/N:** Act 6 is named after the omake... deal with it.


	2. Power Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beginning of Episode 2

Harry walked into Bone's office. "Have you had a chance to look at the pathogen we beamed into the container yet?"

"Just a cursory glance," Bones replied. "It's the strangest thing though, you said you put both active and dormant versions of the pathogen into the container?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. After we detected the dormant ones, I asked Sky to transfer both."

"All of the samples in the container are in a dormant state," Bones replied. "I'd recommend you have the ship scan the nearby ice and sterilize it as a preventative measure. Just in case a few dormant viroids are frozen near where we picked her up."

"I'll have Sky do so immediately," Harry said. "Sky, you catch all that?"

"Got it Harry, proceeding with the scans now," Sky called from the intercom.

"Thanks, Sky!" Harry smiled, content in the knowledge that Sky was taking care of it. "Anything else of note Bones?"

"I was going to wait until the next official meeting to bring this up, but I've been able to match just under half of those scanned from Hogwarts with the census data from the British National Archives. So, I'm well on my way to mapping the common genes. I'd still like to scan a few of the parents who have children attending the school but didn't attend themselves, which we should be able to do using the ships scanners from a distance," Bones replied.

Harry nodded, happy that Bones had managed to accomplish the task without interacting directly with anyone. "I've got another project for you when you finish collecting the data for analysis."

Dr. McCoy nodded, "What do you need?"

"Bones, I know that my situation wasn't normal. But, I'm still worried that there may be others out there like me, other children who are being mistreated or even exploited because of their abilities." Harry said with a sigh.

The doctor leaned forward, "let's work out a plan then."

"I'd like you to compile a list of all the orphans in the UK and compare it to the Hogwarts Registry."

"Will do," Bones replied and then changed the subject, "Harry, I've allocated a set of rooms for your parents. Have you talked with them yet?"

"Not yet," Harry sighed, letting his head fall back in his seat to stare up at the ceiling.

"We had a discussion earlier, about them taking the academy courses in the holodeck during the day," Bones said watching Harry closely.

Harry nodded in acceptance.

"They wanted to talk with you before making any decision," he continued.

Harry refocused on Bones. "Alright I get the hint, I'll talk with them."

"That's all I ask," Bones said.

As Harry got up to leave Bones stopped him, "Harry, remember you can talk with me anytime about anything."

"Thanks doc," Harry said before giving the hologram a quick hug and dashing out the door.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Sky was laughing as he told Harry's parents about the mischief they'd been in during Harry's six years worth of academic studies.

"So, you're telling me my son turned the academy grounds keeper, by the name of Boothby, into a holographic version of an omnipotent being he read about in his history lessons?" James asked giddily.

"Yep, and he followed Boothby around all day calling him, Uncle Q," Sky laughed.

Lily glared at her husband and he winced. "James, one word about The Marauders and it's the couch for a week."

"Let's not get hasty, honey," James spluttered, before smirking. "Unless you want me to make it two weeks myself!"

Lily quickly turned to Sky, pretending James hadn't just countered her offer with his own, and asked, "And just what part did you play in this?"

Sky ginned carelessly and said, "I can neither confirm nor deny my involvement in any of these incidents."

Lily laughed lightly and then said with a sigh, "At least he was able to enjoy some of his childhood. Though I'm not entirely pleased to hear that he took after his father's mischief." She gave James a half-hearted glare.

She was interrupted by the door chime, and called out, "Come in."

The door slid away to reveal Harry standing there fidgeting nervously.

"Harry!" James and Lily exclaimed.

"Come on in, Harry," Lily told him.

Harry spotted Sky and sent a questioning look.

"Sky, here was just telling us about the academy, and Boothby," Lily told Harry motioning for the young man to sit.

Harry groaned putting his face in his hands. "You didn't!"

Sky just inspected his nails and ignored him.

"I was ten, and he yelled at me after I accidentally trampled some of his prize begonias," Harry defended.

James, who had been holding in his mirth up till this point, started laughing. "Then there was something about a 'hoverboard'?" James said, after he managed to stop.

"I couldn't believe they didn't have any, so, I built one to rectify that deficit. It's not my fault that Sky crashed into the dean of students' office window," Harry said. "Best friend doesn't know how to steer," he muttered under his breath.

James' smile couldn't get any wider. "Harry, we've got to get you a broom to try out."

Harry looked at him like he was insane. "Why would I want to ride a broom?" he asked, genuinely confused given his access to hover bikes and small shuttles. "Besides, sitting on a thin stick of wood sounds terribly uncomfortable."

James frowned, and Lily replied, "They have cushioning charms, and wind breaking charms, Harry."

"It still doesn't sound very comfortable, and the implications of the phrase 'riding a broomstick'..." Harry trailed off, James looking as though he were unsure whether to laugh or be affronted.

Deciding to settle for only slightly annoyed but still finding the comment humorous, James changed the subject. "Regardless, I'm proud of you son, you've grown up to be a fine young man."

Harry blushed.

"Harry is there any chance we could contact a few people back home? We have some questions we'd like answered as to why things turned out the way they did," Lily said.

"We can probably work something out with a few of the multi-tool points on the hull..." Harry trailed off. "Sky you think you could hook a holographic image generator to one of the hardpoints on the outer hull?"

"Sure, but we'd need to enter the upper atmosphere to broadcast to the surface," Sky replied.

"I'll get back to you on that one," Harry told his parents, and then asked them. "What about the academy?"

"It'd only be during the day right?" James asked and Harry nodded.

"And we'd get to spend some time with you in the evenings right?" Lily asked.

Harry smiled awkwardly, unsure of quite what to feel, but still somewhat happy that they wanted to spend time with him. "Sure, you might even see me on the holodeck, while my captain's training is mostly over, I still have physical fitness classes, because I'm still growing," he replied.

Lily was about to answer when the lights dimmed, and a low hum vibrated through the deckplating for a second and then the lights came back to full.

"What was that?" James asked uncertainly.

"Power fluctuation," Sky said, his brow furrowed in concentration. "The fusion power generators just turned on and took over lights, and life support."

"Anything we need to worry about?" Lily asked, looking to Harry and wondering if they should be panicking.

"No, no," Harry said. "Probably just need to run some maintenance on the main reactor."

"I've got good news and bad news," Sky said.

Harry sighed. "Bad news first," he said.

"Right then, the dilithium crystals are starting to deteriorate, that's why the computer started the secondaries and transferred everything over from main reactor. Nothing new really, I've been expecting them to deteriorate soon. under normal circumstances, I'd be able to recrystallize them in the articulation frame, using the theta-matrix compositor and radiation collected from starfleet's fission reactor program." Sky said.

"Dilithium crystals?" Lily asked curiously.

"They're a special and somewhat rare crystal, which we use in the main reactor to contain and regulate the flow of anti-matter within the reaction chamber." Harry said and then seeing James about to ask, quickly continued. "Anti-matter is a material that is composed of particles that are the opposite of regular matter. When it comes into contact with normal matter it releases a lot of energy and heat, which turns the surrounding matter into a superheated fluid, which we call plasma, we use the plasma to power the warp core and other systems onboard."

James closed his mouth still somewhat confused but willing to work with it.

"There's more," Sky said.

"Alright, continue," Harry said.

"Unfortunately, the phase cloak was tied directly into the warp core and not any of the other power distribution systems," Sky replied.

"I feel an urge to curse in klingon," Harry groaned.

"Phase cloak?" James asked.

"While definitely not the size of the moon, the ship is still plenty large enough to be seen through a telescope, if not for the cloak," Sky replied, hoping to inject some humor into the topic with his comment about the moon.

"So why don't we just go to another system?" Lily asked.

"Unfortunately the warp nacelles require the superheated plasma generated by the main reactor, or warp core. The secondaries just don't quite cut it," Harry said. "Not if we wish to make the trip in any reasonable amount of time anyway, and if we use the main reactor the dilithium could fracture in the middle of the trip and either blow up the ship or strand us between systems."

"Can we fix it so the cloak can be powered by the other generators?" James asked.

"We could get it done in a week, but we'd have to take the cloak offline. The long route, leaving the cloak up would take a couple months, but the projected rate of deterioration says the dilithium will completely fracture in a little over month, and unfortunately, there are no readily available deposits of dilithium on earth."

"What about landing at one of the Potter properties, the wards would prevent detection." James offered.

"We'd still need the reactor, and the gravitational field of the planet causes instabilities in the antimatter containment fields." Sky shook his head.

"Can we go behind the moon?" Lily said, wanting to help.

"There are a few military national satellites watching that area, but in a pinch we could probably get away with it," Harry conceded. He turned to Sky and asked, "What about the recrystallization method Scotty used?"

"We'll need to remain in orbit here though, sensors and transporters are running in low power mode and have greatly reduced range," Sky said from his seat. "I'll task the sensors to locating a suitable nuclear reactor that we can collect the radiation from."

"In the meantime, we can get started on running the necessary power cables to the cloaking generator." Harry said, before refocusing on his parents. "Well, looks like you'll be getting a crash course in federation technology."

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

"Dammit!" Harry hollered wrapping his hand in his shirt. The power conduit he'd been working on had sparked and burnt his hand.

"Let me see," James said and reached over to pull Harry's hand out of the cloth wincing at the burn. Without his wand he couldn't just use one of the healing spells. So, he decided to try to wandlessly heal the burn, or, at least numb the pain. He almost dropped Harry's hand in surprise when his own hands started to glow. Carefully he covered Harry's hand, as completely with his own as he could, after a moment the glow faded and Harry looked relieved.

"Thanks Dad," Harry said examining the back of his hand which was now only slightly red instead of the angry blister it had been.

"You're welcome," James told his son. "Has Sky found what he's looking for yet?"

"Not yet, getting closer though," Harry replied pulling the new cable through the opening in the wall and attaching it to the plugin. "He said he should have a few candidates sometime tomorrow."

"Hey, Mom!" Harry yelled through the open hatch into the engineering section. "Do we have power to that console yet?"

"It just turned on, Harry," she replied.

"Good, I was not looking forward to pulling that cable out and running a new one." Harry said. "I'm going to call it a day and go have Bones look at this burn." He told his dad.

"That'd probably a good idea," James said, not willing quite to admit that was the first time he'd ever healed someone without a wand. "I'm kinda feeling tired myself."

"I've got a library to read through myself, so I can understand what you're saying when you use that incomprehensible terminology of yours," Lily said turning off the console she'd been at.


	3. Power part 2: Nukes!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a little snafu when I first posted with a duplicate chapter, that chapter has been reuploaded thanks to a review notifying me of the mistake, I think it was chapter 5, anyway if you read it before the update please go back and get hte updated chapter read.
> 
> This chapter comes proofread by Dogbertcarroll.

"Hey, Sky?" Harry called out, from his laid back spot on the tan couch.

"Need something, Harry?" Sky's voice came through the intercom.

"Shouldn't dilithium be one of the things stocked in one of the cargo bays?" Harry asked staring blankly out the window.

"We were stocked for planetside construction," Sky replied shimmering into existence, and walking over to sit in the chair next to Harry. "The only time antimatter reactors are used planetside is if the planet is without an indigenous population and is considered uninhabitable. The base must also be an experimental research site. Additionally, supplies of dilithium under normal conditions, would usually be available at Starfleet supply depots, and independent dealers throughout Federation territory."

"Oh," Harry replied. A few minutes passed with Harry staring idly out the curved window at the earth slowly rotating outside the ship. "Shouldn't we have still had some on hand?"

"I did have a few replacement dilithium modules but I had to replace several crystals which fractured during the time inside the rift," Sky replied, shifting a little in the chair until he was almost as laid back as Harry, his feet resting on the tan leather ottoman.

Harry twisted a bit so he was on his side, looking over at Sky and asked, "Why didn't you restock?"

"I never located a suitable deposit for a temporary mining operation," Sky said shrugging. "And I felt I needed to keep an eye on what was happening here. My brief survey of the surrounding space notwithstanding."

"Eh, alright then. But, in the future, if we do find a deposit we're going to stop long enough to pick some up," Harry said yawning as he stood up and stretched. "I'm going to bed, see you in the morning."

"Good night, captain," Sky said shimmering out of existence again.

**The Next morning...**

Harry ran through his morning exercise routine which basically consisted of running laps through the ship's empty corridors for an hour, and a few other exercises in the gym. He used the time to order his thoughts for the day, the physical activity giving him something to focus on while the rest of his mind worked out what he needed, the run also served to keep him familiar with each section of the ship.

"Hey, Sky?" Harry called out fifteen minutes into his run, as he jogged past the large number painted in a dark steel grey on the wall proclaiming him to be on deck 9 near the outer edge of the saucer.

The black panel lining the wall lit up revealing Sky sitting on the bridge, the image moving with Harry as he jogged, consistently staying just a few feet ahead of him. "Yes, Captain?" Sky's image asked over the intercom.

"Didn't you say we had a solar plasma collector?" Harry asked, turning a corner and continuing his jog.

"It's more of a theoretical procedure, or program, that would allow me to enter the upper atmosphere of a star while phased and use the bussard collectors connected to a series of plasma storage containers to collect the star's plasma, as an alternative to using the warp core to generate plasma," Sky replied wondering where Harry was going with this.

"If we can do that, then can we use the phase cloak to collect the radiation we need to recrystallize the dilithium from the star in this system?" Harry asked turning another corner and heading up a ramp to the next deck.

"Theoretically? Sure," Sky replied as his video image jumped to the display on the next deck up. "Putting that into practice, now? Not at the moment, no. Though, the idea is something we can use in the future, we'll need the equipment to collect the radiation and then release it at a slower controlled rate back into the dilithium chamber, otherwise the dilithium could recrystallize into an unstable, and volatile isotope."

Harry continued his run in silence for another couple minutes before speaking again, "While we're on the topic, just to make sure, we do have a decent supply of antimatter, and deuterium, right?"

"Plenty of deuterium, and we can always process more from the oceans on the planet if we need more. We do have a good stockpile of anti-matter as well, and we do have the ability to generate small amounts of anti-matter during our downtime to keep the stockpile up," Sky replied. "Keep in mind though, without a main production facility, our supply is ultimately limited."

Harry nodded, mostly to himself, and asked, "How's the search going?"

"Difficult, almost none of the records I need are in a digital format, so I have to work on sensor readings to find a facility and then scans of the paperwork within to gather more information," Sky replied a little annoyed at how much work he had to do.

**Two days later, 0715 Hours, briefing room two...**

The conference room was one of the smaller ones given that the normal briefing room would be overkill with the small numbers involved. Harry was the last to arrive sitting down at the table and accepting a padd with information on it from Sky.

"Sorry it took so long, had to sift through a lot of data on reactor types and shielding, but I've narrowed our options down to these three locations," Sky said to the three. "The type we're going for are, smaller, sodium cooled, desalination, fast breeder plants. First one is in a town called Shevchenko, on the coast of the Caspian sea. It's currently considered part of the Soviet Union, but if history proceeds as the database suggests, by 1992 that region will be known as Kazakhstan."

"Why this one?" Lily asked, looking at the aerial view of the soviet power plant on the display.

"The security for this reactor is not as strict as other locations, and the necessary high-energy radiation we need can easily be collected through the shielding," Sky replied, before switching to the next slide showing a black and white photograph of the site taken from the files scanned. "Our second option is the KNK-II reactor located at Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Centre in Germany. It was recently converted into the type of reactor we're looking for, but security is tighter there, due to it being located in a research center."

"And the third option?" James asked, still not quite understanding what a nuclear reactor was, but doing better after talking with his wife the previous night.

"The third option is a research center at Dounreay in Scotland, it's more heavily secured as the location was a former RAF airfield and is co-located with a Ministry of Defense test-site designated Vulcan." Sky brought up an image of the location from the air on the viewscreen.

"Unfortunately, the radiation interferes with our transporter systems, we can't get a good lock for beaming down, but I think we could manage a beam out using isolinear tags to give the transporter a signal it can lock onto," Sky said, hitting the button again and bringing up an diagram of the isolinear tag and passing one around the table.

Lily spoke up, "We should be able to walk right into the first one, just need the right story, a good translation charm, a hefty sack of money, and some good intelligence on which corrupt official to hand it over to."

"I'm still not quite comfortable with using our energy based abilities for something like this," Harry said after a few seconds silence.

"It's called magic," James muttered under his breath.

Lily kicked him under the table before turning to Harry. "Harry, the term magic is appropriate, since that is what the people using it choose to call it, even if the word has been used as a catch-all for anything that isn't understood."

Harry nodded, conceding, or at least deciding not to argue the point, before continuing, "So I'm going to advise using the universal translator as well as the charm. Otherwise, you have a go to start putting out feelers for the right person to talk to. In the meantime, me and James will see about getting into the second one."

"I've replicated a portable radiation collector," Sky said holding up a small sphere which had a flattened top and bottom. The collector was a little bigger than a softball. "It'll need a good ten minutes within a range of twenty meters of the reactor core, and the closer you are the less time it'll take," Sky said.

"Alright then, we'll go down and establish our identities in Russia and Germany today," Harry said standing up. "Anything else we need to cover?" he asked. Nobody spoke up so he continued, "Have the ship replicate a appropriate outfits for the locations. I'll meet you in the transporter room in four hours."

**Four hours later...**

"James! Dad," Harry said cringing at the outfit his father was wearing. "Did you even look at the database for what you were supposed to wear?"

"I did, honest!" James replied, somewhat confused and a little affronted that his current outfit, an eyesore of a shirt that was made up of a zigzagging pattern of a darker pink, bright blue, and yellow-orange, and sweatpants that were bright red with a multi-colored confetti pattern, didn't meet his son's approval.

"We're going for respectable dad, not... this," Harry said gesturing towards the entire outfit James was wearing before covering his face. "You know what?" Harry exclaimed pointing at him. "You, are no longer allowed to dress yourself." He turned to his mother who was dressed in something more appropriate for a lady working in a corporate office. "Mom, I'm making you responsible for ensuring he's appropriately attired. Dad, you will wear exactly what she tells you to wear."

They reconvened an hour later, this time James was wearing a more modest pair of slacks and button up shirt. Lily had allowed him the single concession of a bright multicolored eyesore of a tie, which could easily have been a Father's day present he was guilted into wearing. He carried a matching sports jacket over one arm and a courier bag on his other shoulder containing their documentation, which would be matched by another set of papers the ship would beam into a file cabinet in the government office they were headed to.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The away mission planetside was mostly uneventful to start, Harry had to fast talk only twice to get James out of situations his big mouth, and terrible sense of humor led them into. Harry had to keep stepping on James' toes everytime he started trying to fake a German accent, but in the end they had everything properly registered for two scientists and their... son, though the physical age gap, being closer to one decade rather than two, brought a few raised eyebrows.

Getting into the German research center was another story, for a civilian facility, security had the place locked up tighter than an army munitions test site. So they planted one of the collectors as close as they could get to the main reactor and found a secluded area to beam out.

In contrast, the second away mission on the soviet side went less than swimmingly. The nearby administrative complex they'd chosen to beam down at was calm for all of two seconds before they heard the sound of gunfire outside.

"Keep your heads down," Harry called out to the older two Potters.

Outside a line of soldiers marched down the street in full riot gear. Lily pulled rank, that of being a worried mom, and told Harry to call the away mission off.

Later that night after a thorough scan of the German site, Harry and James donned lab coats and name and film dosimeter badges, they grabbed a couple of geiger counters and beamed down to an empty hall, out of sight of any security cameras. Taking the second collector they walked along the corridor until they reached a secured door which they entered the key code the ship had pulled from the facility earlier in the day for them.

"So, just a few minutes with this thing on as close as we can get to the main reactor and then we can beam out," James said.

"Yeah, I'll keep watch you walk the outer perimeter waving the thing around, so it'll look like you're taking radiation readings," Harry said. "Just pause every couple seconds and write down a number on your clipboard."

James nodded and turned on the collector before climbing the metal ladder to the steel walkway that ran around the outer edge of the reactor chamber's outer shielding. To the camera it would look like two of the technicians were performing a scheduled late-night radiation check.

About halfway around the walkway, Harry saw a nightguard entering his key in the outer door. "James! We got company!" he called out.

"Alright, reading at fifty percent!" James called back, the slow clicking of his geiger counter the only other noise in the room.

The inner door opened, the guard glanced at the name badge, "You new here?"

"Yeah, just transferred in from Greifswald," Harry lied. "Name's Harald, my research partner up there on the catwalk is Jakob."

"Good to meet you, name's Hans. Everything alright?" the guard asked, curiously.

"Oi, Jakob!" Harry yelled up at the catwalk. "What's the reading?"

James glanced at the geiger counter puzzling out the reading. "Under 10 mSv," James yelled back.

"Well, keep it going then," Harry yelled back and turned back to the guard. "Just checking radiation levels in case there are any small leaks, so far, so good."

The guard nodded. "Stop by my post on the way out."

The radiation collector lodged in James' pocket passed over a thin spot in the shielding and pulled a larger number of particles out of the chamber and into it's storage and the temperature readout for the main reactor chamber in the control room dipped for a second. In the morning the scientists reviewing the graph would have some head scratching over the little dip in temperature but beyond that the event would pass without much notice.

James finished his lap around the reactor and descended the ladder again. "Looks like the collector is full."

"Hope we don't have to come back down again later," Harry muttered. "We're too close to the reactor, the radition is too thick in this section for beam out. We'll have to head back out closer to the hallway we beamed down in."

James nodded and they made sure the door was secured behind them and proceeded down the hallway.

"Halt," Hans called out stepping into the hallway. "You two are not on the approved list for the facility and your entrance was not recorded," Hans said and pulled a thin stick out of his sleeve which he pointed at them. "I do not know how you got through the wards but I assure you we shall find out."

James passed Harry the collector and Harry ducked down a side corridor, tapping the activator on the isolinear tag to signal the request to beam out. A few seconds of later Harry reached the edge of the radiation interference, shimmered and disappeared.

Hans fired a stunner at Harry missing as he ducked and disappeared down the hallway and out of sight, and then he fired one at James before radioing back to the security post, "one of them disapparated, though I can't get a reading on the trail."

He dropped a portkey onto James' stomach and said the activation word whisking him away to a holding cell under a ward for interrogation.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Harry reappeared on the transporter pad in the ship. "Sky, I've got the collector but James was captured by a wizard."

"Take it down to engineering, I'll meet you there and we can start the recrystallization process," Sky replied.

Lily met him in main engineering with Sky. "So, where's James?" she asked.

"Still planetside, apparently they employ wizards as security guards now," Harry said tossing the collector to Sky.

Sky plugged it into a receptacle on the side reactor chamber and went back to the main control console where he could monitor and control the rate at which the radiation was released into the dilithium.

"What?" Lily half yelled.

"Relax, he'll be fine just waiting for him to activate the isolinear tag so we can beam him out," Harry said.

"He's probably stunned," Sky said. "I'm starting the process now."

Lily took a few deep breaths to calm herself and watched as Sky skillfully worked on his set of controls.

"It does make sense," she said after a moment, trying to distract herself from worrying about James. "Muggleborn students have to go somewhere after school, and I know the wizarding world doesn't hire them all. So of course it would make sense that the non-magical government would hire the ones they can find to protect dangerous areas from wizards."

"90 percent recrystallized," Sky said looking annoyed. "There is still one crystal that isn't a hundred percent restored, and the collector is empty."

"What's that mean for our time frame?" Harry asked.

"As long as that one doesn't fracture we should be fine for the next year," Sky replied, detaching the collector from the reactor.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

James groaned and pushed his way past the groggy leftover feeling from the stunner. On the other side of the door another guard appeared and looked through the bars.

"I see you are awake, Mr. Jakob, if that is your real name," the guard said. "You will tell me wizard how you got into our facility and what you were doing there."

James blinked. "Wizard?" he asked trying to play it off as if he thought the guard was crazy.

"You can stop playing like you don't know the meaning of the word," the guard said, as James squirmed trying to get comfortable with his hands cuffed.

"My good sir, I'll have you know I have never, not even once attempted any sleight of hand," James replied, "well that is not unless a bra was involved."

The guard sighed, and called over his shoulder, "Get the veritaserum."


	4. A Nuclear family!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> edited

**Friday, October 14th, 1988**

"This gets us out of emergency power mode right?" Harry asked Sky. The group was still standing in main engineering around the master systems display table similar in appearance to the one from the TV show that followed Picard's enterprise.

"Yeah," Sky replied tossing the now empty radiation collector back and forth. "I'll be bringing all the secondaries online and up to full output though so we aren't pushing the matter/antimatter reactor. Should help us stretch the life of that one crystal farther."

"You can be in more than one place at a time right?" Lily asked suddenly, remembering a few comments Harry and Sky had made, and some of the information she'd read over the past week.

Sky nodded in affirmation. "Yeah, with main power restored, the computer has released the energy conservation settings it had on system resources. Why do you ask?" Sky replied curious as to where Lily was going with this.

"Just wondering if you can use the holo-emitters to help lay down the new power lines from the secondary generators to the cloaking device?" she asked.

"Of course, I've used them for that purpose before," Sky nodded, referencing the engineering team he'd used to examine the alien ship. "I didn't think of it before because the option was unavailable with power restrictions in place, but with the computer restrictions removed from the main reactor," he said, tapping a few keys on the control table to bring up a diagram of the best possible path between the closest secondary generator and the cloaking device. "I can connect to this power conduit here," he said pointing to a highlighted area on the map indicating the secondary powerline. "The only problem areas will be these four spots as there are no emitters in those areas, and the closest ones don't reach that far."

"We'll handle those four spots then," Harry said with a nod.

Harry noticed his mother nervously looking around. "Do we have a lock on James yet?" Harry asked.

"He still hasn't activated the isolinear tag." Sky replied.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

**Saturday morning**

"Bones!" Harry called out entering sickbay, "What's new?"

"Oh, nothing much, I read the post-mission report about you going into a pollution and radiation filled environment," the doctor groused, and motioned for him to take a seat on one of the biobeds for a checkup.

Harry grumbled a bit about overprotective doctors, but ultimately followed his instructions. "How's the plan for monitoring the orphans going?" he asked after a few moments of being poked and prodded.

"The power situation over the past week slowed me down some, but luckily my program is flagged as essential and that let me continue working around the power conservation lockout," Bones replied. "I've flagged the records on the appropriate sub-dermal health implant for the high risk orphans but the replicators and transporters were also locked out so, all I've got is report on what to do. I made more progress on the DNA mapping than I did on the plan for the orphans."

Harry winced at a particularly hard poke and asked, "Is the poking really necessary?"

"Absolutely," Dr. McCoy deadpanned. "Medical sensors just don't let me feel how my patient is doing."

"With main power back online, I expect to be over Britain for the next few weeks so you can do your thing. Just waiting on the ship to locate James," Harry told the doctor leaning away from another of the doctor's jabs.

"Well you're clean," McCoy said after a moment. "The brief exposure didn't kill you and the shot I gave you will help clean out any remaining radiation. I'll start tagging the older orphans with health monitors tonight. And send James here first thing once he gets his head together enough to activate his emergency beacon."

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

"Ah," the guard said swinging a chair around to sit in backwards while facing the cell. "Mr. Jakob, if that is your real name."

"I am Michel," he said before pointing to the man next to him. "This is Dierk, perhaps you would do us the pleasure of informing us why and how you were in our facility last night. Hmm?"

"Well, Mikey," James grinned. "Can I call you Mikey?" he asked before continuing without waiting for an answer. "Sure, Mikey I'll tell ya, I'm Jakob Tiberius Kirk and I was collecting neutrons for my starship," James said with a flourish. In some cases the unvarnished truth is far stranger than fiction. "Hmmm... and as for how, that would be MAGIC!" James replied laughing a bit hysterically at the end.

Michel's expression soured. "Are you sure that is the response you wish to make Mr. Kirk?" he asked with a dangerous undercurrent to his voice.

"You're absolutely right, I don't know what I could possibly have been thinking to claim it was magic that placed me within these walls," James replied. "As my son likes to remind me, Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology," he paused and furrowed his brow. "No, wait, I think that was the other way around."

Dierk smirked from his spot, as the silent cop to Michel's angry cop, a soft snort escaping his otherwise calm facade.

Michel jerked to look at his partner. "Don't start with me," he said sourly and turned back to his prisoner. "I've got my eyes on you Mr. Kirk, any funny business..."

James adopted an affronted expression.

"... any at all," the guard continued, before taking note of the expression on James' face. He stopped and frowned again, grumbling under his breath and leaving the room.

Dierk's smile grew wider. "It's my turn now, Mr. Kirk. My country does not take kindly to spies, Mr. Kirk," he told him. "I do seem to recall an issue of Britain's, Daily Prophet, one that reported a man looking remarkably like you who apparently died some eight years ago. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it would you?" Dierk asked.

James looked up at Dierk with a slight frown that he forced away. "Huh, I feel pretty alive myself, if I do say so... Must be my doppelgänger," James replied.

"Now now, Jakob" Dierk said looking directly at him. "It doesn't help your case that you're trying to frame a deadman, and a hero even in this country. How you've done it though, is something else, see we have charms to detect if you're a metamorph, the multiple finites cast at you would have disrupted any glamours we know of, and it's been long enough polyjuice should have worn off by now."

James just grinned. "Oh, but this is my real face."

"Here's what's going to happen," Dierk said. "I'm going to walk out that door, and ten minutes later, I and a few others are going to return through that door with veritaserum. At which point you will answer our questions..." Dierk paused staring hard at James.

"I do wonder, if you'll be able to pull a disappearing act through these wards like your partner, Mr. Kirk," Dierk replied with a smirk before walking out of the room.

James shrugged and decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He thought for a moment about wrassling with the cuffs on his wrists, in an attempt to get his hands in front of him. But he winced as it felt like he'd pulled his shoulder out of joint trying to get his hands underneath him. So instead he looked around the cell for a moment and shakily stood up before pressing his chest against the wall.

It took a second and then a third time before he hit the wall with enough force to activate the hidden isolinear tag underneath the left pocket of his shirt just over his breast. He waited a few seconds for the unfamiliar feeling of the transporter. As much as he would have loved to see the expression on their faces when he answered truthfully under truth serum that he was there gathering radiation for his spaceship, he had a wife to get home to.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

"I've picked up James' beacon he's forty miles away from the research center," Sky reported to Harry interrupting his morning run.

"Tell mum, and see if he's alone then bring him up to the closest transporter room and give me directions," Harry ordered.

"Affirmative, Captain. Sensors report he's alone at the moment, initiating emergency beam out," Sky replied the panels along the wall lighting up with a path leading Harry to the transporter room. "Mrs. Potter has been informed, as well as Dr. McCoy. The doctor will be meeting us at the transporter room in case he is in need of medical attention."

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

James felt the shift of the transporter as the newer transport type opened a rift underneath him and deposited him on the other side. "That was different," he said looking around.

"The old style transporter was unable to get a lock through the shielding around your location, even with the help of the isolinear tag," Sky replied.

"Hold still," McCoy said shimmering into existence. "I'm going to scan you first," the doctor told him holding out a medical scanner and running it over him. "Alright you're mostly clear, though I'm going to give you a shot for the limited radiation exposure, and you'll have to report to sickbay for dermal regeneration to touch up those cuts where you were roughed up."

"Good to see ya dad," Harry said stepping through the door and inspecting his wayward father. "I see you managed to remember the emergency beacon and activate it."

James grinned in response and said, "Nothing to it son, just had to find a quiet moment away from the interrogators. Would you believe, that they didn't believe me when I told them we were there to collect radiation for our spaceship?"

Harry laughed. "Let's see about getting those handcuffs off you, hmm?"

"They seem to be the results of a joint project between magical and non-magical security," James replied. "They appear to be suppressing my magic, and I suspect they'll have runes inscribed to make them unbreakable and probably a number of other enchantments."

"I wonder if they'll stand up to the transporter," Harry mused. "Sky see if you can beem them off him or him out of them."

A few seconds later James shimmered and the cuffs dropped from the now empty space before he reappeared on the transporter pad to the left.

"There was an anomalous energy pattern that prevented me from getting an adequate lock, so I went with the second option," Sky's voice echoed through the room. A second later a series of small runes flashed on the handcuffs and went dark. "And now the pattern is gone," Sky said.

"Interesting," Harry mused. "Can you duplicate them?"

"I now have a complete scan saved in my databanks," Sky replied.

"Recycle the metal then; I don't want something like that just laying around," Harry ordered and watched as the transporter effect shimmered over the metal and the handcuffs disappeared.

**Sunday, 0945 hours...**

"You don't have the flu or any other virus," Doctor McCoy said, as he ran the scanner over Lily. "And it's not from radiation exposure during the away mission."

"You're sure?" she asked from her sitting position on the edge of the biobed. "Because, it certainly felt like I was sick this morning."

"Quite certain Ma'am," the doctor said with a grin. "What you've got is an old fashioned case of a bun in the oven."

Lily gasped, "You mean...?" she said trailing off before whispering, "I'm pregnant?"

"That's exactly right," Dr. McCoy said wheeling the bedside tray away and holding a hand out to help her off the edge of the biobed.

"How far along am I?" Lily asked, her stomach fluttering in excitement.

"That's the interesting part, normally I wouldn't be seeing you until the fourth week of pregnancy at the earliest. But, in this case, the scanner tells me under two weeks give or take a day or two," Bones replied.

"That would be the curse of being a witch," Lily said with a laugh. "Our magic usually informs us earlier about the change in situation and makes use of the same symptoms as morning sickness to do so."

"If you want I can use the scanner to tell you if the baby will be a boy or girl," he offered.

"There are spells and potions I could use too, but I think I want this one to be a surprise," Lily told the doctor.

"I'll schedule regular checkups so we can keep track of your progress," McCoy told her with a smile.

Lily went to walk for the door and bumped into the tray McCoy had pushed away from the biobed, the news of the impending arrival had her in a dazed state. Her mind going over everything and a small smile growing slowly on her lips.

McCoy quickly reached out to gently guide her to the door before asking, "You're sure you're alright?"

"Positive," she replied shaking through the daze. "Sky," she called out.

"Yes, Mrs. Potter?" Sky replied over the comm system.

"Could you notify James and Harry I'd like to have a family dinner tonight? I have some news I'd like to share with them," she said.

"Will do," Sky replied. "I can prepare a few bottles of synthohol champagne as well, if you'd like, synthohol isn't dangerous to pregnant women like regular alcohol," he offered.

"You do that," Lily said softly. "There'll be plenty cause to celebrate tonight." She shook her head again and then spoke clearly, "Send an invite to the doctor and why don't you join us as well?"


	5. Grace in the midst

Dierk and Michel walked back into the room, followed by a registered doctor and mediwizard, carrying a sealed yellow plastic case labeled Veritaserum, underneath that was the word Biohazard. Of course the first label had a notice-me-not charm, to allow the case to be used in non-magical areas.

Michel started his spiel without glancing towards the cell, "Mr. Kirk, there's no use resisting, and soon we'll have you singing all your secr—" he stopped mid sentence, staring at the empty cell, his face grew red with anger as he started shaking.

"Well, it seems he had one last trick up his sleeve after all," Dierk chuckled, as Michel started cursing, and the doctor winced and backed out of the room. "Claus, Ingolf, Nico, get in here and start scanning for any residue and see if we can trace the destination or at least determine how he pulled it off."

"Nico, activate the tracking feature of the cuffs and see if we can get a lead that way." Dierk ordered, wanting to grumble but hiding it. An escapee meant paperwork, and normally he'd be annoyed, but on the brightside, he could return the veritaserum unopened and cancel the interrogation, which meant he didn't need to fill out that paperwork.

Dierk shook his head to himself, for some reason, using veritaserum involved a significantly larger stack of paper. He sighed, and daydreamed that someday he'd find a spell that would automatically file the correct paperwork, and all he'd have to do would be, sign it.

"Sir," Nico called out from inside the cell, a string of numbers floating above his wand, showing the live coordinates from the tracking charm. The location was miles above the ground in orbit over the Earth. After a couple seconds the numbers froze and the tracker stopped responding.

"Damned prankster," Dierk laughed. "Unless you have any other ideas Nico, I'm writing this off as a last prank in the spirit of the man who originally wore that face."

* **0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

**22:00 hrs, Tuesday, October 18th, 1988**

Mrs. Potter roamed the ship, restless and unable to sleep. After an hour of looking into the empty quiet rooms around the ship she settled into one of the dining rooms and sent off a message from the computer terminal built into the table.

Dr. McCoy looked down at the note on his screen and frowned, wondering what was keeping Mrs. Potter awake at this hour.

"Computer, where's Mrs. Potter?" the doctor asked.

"Mrs. Potter is on deck four in the starboard mess hall," came the computer's automated response. McCoy decided it was close enough to walk to her, so he tapped a few keys to save the file he was working on, and then sent a reply that he'd join her shortly.

"Mrs. Potter, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dr. McCoy asked a few minutes later as he entered the room.

"Just someone to talk to, James and Harry are both asleep already, and I didn't want to wake one of them," Lily replied. "I hope I'm not interrupting any of your work."

Dr. McCoy smiled and relaxed a little. "I needed a break anyway. Since Project Heimdall is now proceeding to the implementation stage, I was cataloging gene sequences when you called me."

"How about a late snack while you tell me about it," Lily replied and tapped a few keys on the replicator receiving point built into the table to produce a tuna salad sandwich.

McCoy grinned, pulled up a chair and had the ship produce a holographic plate of barbecued ribs for himself, and started talking, "Has Harry mentioned either project to you?"

"He did say something about Project Heimdall the other day, after I mentioned how empty the place was," Lily replied with a small smile.

"Well the second project I mentioned came from a discussion on what makes wizards capable of magic," McCoy explained, while cutting into his food. "After working things out we found a copy of the Hogwarts registry with a complete listing that we were able to match with names for DNA profiles of parents as well as the profiles of all of those students currently attending the school right now. The work so far has been a comparative analysis of the common genes shared between the two groups making note of any differences between the two."

"Wait, DNA?" Lily asked. "It's been a while since I dealt with the topic, and the primer from before Hogwarts was rather simplistic."

McCoy paused to explain a few basic concepts of genetics and the Punnett square.

"Right, I think I have the basics down now," Lily told him.

Sky shimmered into existence next to the two of them, interrupting the conversation. "Doctor McCoy, Mrs. Potter, Project Heimdall just registered a killing curse," Sky said skipping the pleasantries.

"Doctor McCoy and Harry have both informed me of Project Heimdall," Lily said pushing aside her alarm at the words Killing Curse. "Do we have a better picture of the situation?" she asked falling back into wartime mode when she had helped with damage control.

Sky nodded to her, and pulled up the holo-interface Harry had developed, configuring it to display a viewscreen. "I've set the screen to follow us around."

"I'll put an aerial view on the holographic display. I was going to wake the captain but with you and the doctor still up..." Sky said trailing off.

"That's quite alright," Lily told him watching the display flicker before showing the orphanage and a few flame curses hitting from a distance.

"As you know, we've been tagging orphans who register as magical with a health monitor since Sunday, this is group four, registered at St. Brutus' secure home for troubled youth."

Lily froze. "That place actually exists?" she asked skeptically, remembering Petunia had once tried to claim their parents had sent her there.

"It does, though the its reputation should apply more to the individuals in charge of the facility than those who fall under its care," Sky confirmed. "It was high on our list for monitoring, due to reports that the administrative staff have been under investigation by the ministry for child neglect, in addition to unsafe premises, for several months now."

"Bring them up," Lily said watching the flames dancing along the walls of the orphanage.

"Ma'am?" Sky asked.

"The attackers have left haven't they?" Lily asked eyes glued to the screen.

"Sensors say they're all outside the building at this point, though much of the building is on fire, and rescue forces are too far away to help," Sky replied highlighting the route of the fire brigade from the nearby town and the road to the orphanage.

"Start bringing them up then, all of them," Lily ordered, her hands clenching and unclenching as she stared at the screen. "Are there any adults onsite?" she asked, realizing she was standing and not quite remembering when she'd done so.

"Records show, an elderly caretaker, and a young nurse who spends the night," Sky replied. "The administrative staff all live elsewhere."

"Bring them all up, beam everyone down there directly to the medical bay," Lily said her eyes glued to the display in horror. "We can help them, so we should do so."

"I agree, I'll head back to sickbay now," Dr. McCoy said shimmering out of existence.

"Understood ma'am," Sky replied. "I'll have everyone out of the building in a few minutes. We should also have the killing curse victim resuscitated and in treatment shortly."

A few moments later, Lily tore her gaze from the screen. "Why don't we follow the doctor to sickbay and see if we can be of assistance," Lily said.

Sky nodded and led the way to the transport booth a short distance down the hall. The pair stepped in and transit to the medical bay.

They walked into the room as another group flashed into existence the transport effect releasing them, some were coughing from smoke inhalation and a few were pale and unconscious.

"Sky I think we'll need a few more instances of the doctor's program active," Lily said looking around her at the chaos.

"Bringing them online now," Sky told her, and then duplicated his own form as well with subtle variations in the uniform.

The additional versions of the doctor busied themselves stabilizing patients, there were several burn victims ranging in severity.

In one corner an instance of the doctor moved to pick up the unbreathing body of the boy who'd been caught by a killing curse into a biobed and resuscitated, once they'd stabilized him, he'd be moved to a stasis chamber where the energy from the curse would be purged over the next week. The process much faster now that they'd studied the energy and knew what to do.

Lily motioning for Sky to dismiss the holographic display before asking where she could be of assistance.

"The tally so far, has ten critically injured, but stabilized and recovering, four with minor burns. Unfortunately the caretaker was too badly injured, and died in surgery," the doctor reported, motioning for her to assist him with another burn patient.

"I've got twenty-four out so far, and another group coming in," Sky reported, followed by the flash of the transporter as it deposited another group in the open area.

"Activate another five doctors," McCoy told Sky. "I'm opening the secondary medical bay, send the new arrivals there."

Sky nodded and sent more instances of himself and the doctor to the secondary medical bay, one floor down and on the other side of the ship. "We have the other adult, she's badly burned." Sky reported.

Lily nodded, "Take me to her once she's stabilized," she ordered, before returning to the patient in front of her.

They were nearing the end of the list of patients, when Sky pulled her aside, "She's stable, she was caught in her room when a burning support beam fell in front of her door, any later and we wouldn't have been able to help her."

Lily nodded walking with Sky to the other section of the medical bay, "What's her name?" she asked.

"Grace Chapel," Sky told her motioning into the room where the nurse lay underneath the shield of one of the advanced medical biobeds. "The bed is keeping her condition from deteriorating while it automatically repairs the damage."

Lily nodded in understanding and walked to the edge of the sanitizing field around the bed.

"It's alright if I go through?" she asked.

"Just push hard on the edge of the field it will clean you of any harmful bacteria," one of the Dr. McCoy's told her.

She nodded again and tentatively touched the edge of the field, before taking a deep breath and pushing though.

"Hello Grace," she said once the doctor administered a stimulant to wake her.

"What's happening?" Grace asked, her voice shaking and fear in her eyes.

"There was a terrorist attack on the orphanage," Lily told her. "You're being treated for burns on most of your body, we've managed to save most everyone, but there are a few who were less lucky in the extent of their injuries, and we arrived too late to help the caretaker."

Grace tried to nod, before Lily reached out and stopped her.

"Don't move, please, we have you on painkillers and partially immobilized," the doctor said.

"We should have you all fixed up in.." Lily looked to the doctor.

"A day or so," he provided.

"And then we'd like your help getting the children settled in." Lily continued.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Harry shuffled into the mess, yawning sleepily just inside the door. He looked around and blinked at the crowded room. It was too early for this, he decided ignoring the crowd.

James looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to ask?"

Harry ignored him and said, "Pass the coffee."

He took a sip, looked around, took another sip, looked around again, without saying a word, he leaned forward and ordered his breakfast, careful to avoid acknowledging anything amiss. He just knew Sky was waiting for him to demand an explanation.


	6. Standard Op

Sky shimmered into existence, standing at attention in front of the captain's desk in the ready room off the bridge, leaving several instances of himself assisting the multiple instances of the doctor in the medical bay. "How can I be of assistance, Captain?" Sky asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow at the question, and tapped a key to close the report that was open on his holographic display. "Commander, why the sudden formality?" he asked swiveling the chair to give him a more direct view of the ship's AI and first officer.

Sky swallowed nervously, shuffling from one foot to another. Harry leaned back in his chair, forcing his expression to stay neutral by staring at one of the decorations just behind Sky's head.

"How about we start with a situation report," Harry said after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Of course, sir," Sky said pulling up the report. "At 2300 hours last night, project Heimdall recorded an energy pattern matching the killing curse impacting an individual tagged as part of group three. As the situation developed, the group of attackers set fire to the building and left the premises shortly after," Sky explained the events leading up to the decision to use ship resources to evacuate the inhabitants of the orphanage. "In conference with Mrs. Potter and Doctor McCoy, the decision was reached with Doctor McCoy's approval to render immediate medical assistance."

Harry nodded having read that much of the report himself, though Sky's explanation allowed him more insight into the circumstances behind the decision. "Do you have a list of the evacuees and a casualty report ready?" he asked.

"Doctor McCoy has compiled the most up to date list and it should be in your inbox shortly," Sky said after a moment. "We worked through most of the night treating burns and smoke inhalation. Last count had eleven severely burned who are currently undergoing dermal regeneration, seventeen with minor burns to the extremities, and all 47 required treatment for smoke inhalation. Of the two adults onsite the caretaker was killed by the attackers and could not be revived, the second adult a nurse by the name of Grace Chapel, suffered severe burns to ninety percent of her body, from what we can tell a support beam blocked her door closed trapping her within the room."

Harry nodded with the list in front of him, notes next to each name listing the severity of their injuries.

"I'm sure the doctor included it in his report, but one of the children has asked for cybernetic prosthesis replacements instead of regrowing the damaged skin and muscle of his arm and leg," Sky told Harry. "We've also treated several minor chronic illnesses."

"As long as the doctor doesn't see a problem with it. I'm sure there will be some complications since the boy in question hasn't reached his full growth yet. But as long as the good doctor agrees with the feasibility, it's his choice," Harry replied after reading that section of the report. "Now, would you mind telling me why exactly you feel the need to be so... this, today?" Harry asked, staring at his first officer.

"You're the captain, and we didn't wake you," Sky said slowly.

Harry laughed. "I'll admit I'm annoyed to have missed the action, but I trust both your judgment and that of Doctor McCoy, and no matter what, I don't regret saving lives, Sky." Harry stood up and walked around the desk towards the chaise lounge against the wall. "Sit, Sky, you standing at attention makes this conversation feel overly dramatic." Harry said motioning for his friend and first officer to take a seat across from him. "I admit, it's earlier than I expected to have to deal with this," Harry said leaning forward. "And we saved them all, not just those who are marked as magical. But would you rather I scold you about not leaving the rest to die? They were all in danger and in need of our help. As much as I hate the exposure, I'm glad you three acted to save lives."

Sky breathed a sigh of relief.

Harry laughed at him and said, "Don't feel relieved too quickly now. I'm still going to get you back for not getting me up to help out."

Sky tensed again.

"And next time, Sky, unless the doctor says I've been ordered to rest, or I'm attending to other matters, you'll at least try to contact me, even if starfleet regulations allow the two senior staff to make emergency decisions without the captain," Harry said calmly. "And don't let my mom order you around."

"Understood, sir," Sky replied.

"At least not until she's passed officer training," Harry added.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

**Meanwhile... in the children's ward of the medical bay...**

Cecile Willis one of the youngest rescues looked up at Mrs. Potter and asked, "Are you my new mommy I prayed for?"

Lily froze for a second, before carefully looking down at the five year old sitting on her lap, she didn't have the heart to say no. "If... if you want dear. Only if that's what you want," Lily replied hesitantly, her emotions getting the better of her.

"What about us?" six other 5 year olds called out from their seats. "Can you be our mom too?"

"Is he my new daddy?" Cecile asked, before Lily could answer the other children, pointing at Dr. McCoy.

Lily noticed James at the door when he spoke up, "No, that's Uncle Leonard, I'm her husband."

"So that makes you our new daddy then," another five year old by the name of Judith "Judy" Hoffman puzzled out slowly.

James shortly found himself drug to a seat and surrounded by children, as they climbed on him and asked questions.

"A little help dear?" he managed to ask his wife.

"I'll think about it dear..." Lily replied with a laugh. "Right after I get Sky to take pictures for photographic evidence, I mean memories..."

"Hey what about us," the indignant voice of Calvin English, who was eight called from across the room, having taken notice of the commotion.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

****rewind****

"Vernon?!" Petunia's shrill voice pierced the morning air, before her lay an empty cupboard. The threadbare mattress cold to the touch no sign of it having been used the night previous. "Vernon!" she yelled again.

"I'm coming, yah daft woman," Vernon grumbled from upstairs, his breath heavy with the effort of moving quickly. He huffed as he descended the stairs. "Now, what's all this racket about?"

Petunia pointed silently at the empty cupboard, the single bulb within illuminating the lack of occupant.

"So, the little runt's run off then," Vernon Dursley groused. "Don't see what you want me to do about it."

Petunia looked at him sharply. "They'll find out he's gone," she hissed.

"So? And they'll be introduced to the business end of my shotgun," Vernon replied unconcerned.

"They'll know that was his bedroom, that it was locked with him inside," she continued.

Fear of course makes people irrational. Yes, they, being wizards would probably be quite capable of learning exactly where Harry had slept for the past eight years, if they learned any more than that it would take more than just the initial glance.

Vernon grumbled under his breath before saying, "I'll set the rubbish out in the bin later."

Later that day, Mrs. Number Eight would stop by for tea, eyes peeled for anything amiss as usual. Of course, Mrs. Dursley's skittish behavior only encouraged her to pay even closer attention to the goings on at Number Four Privet Drive.

Throughout the day, Mrs. Number Eight visited each of the ladies on her street for a brief chat, and an exchange of neighborhood gossip. At each stop the speculation grew as she related the skittishness she'd observed that morning, and the absence of the poor dear sweet child, which was quite the turnaround from Harry's usual appellation as the lawless hooligan who'd been thrust upon the kind Dursley family.

Speculation as to the fate of the boy grew, until each neighbor in turn shared their own observations over the years as to how the boy had been treated at Number Four, each one unable to stop themselves, as their morbid fascination painted a grim tale strung together from bits and pieces, snippets of overheard conversation, until finally one of the ladies gasped out, "You don't think they've been abusing the poor dear, do you?"

The ladies paused in shock going over their own memories in turn, until Mrs. Number Seven stood and said, "Ladies, I think we should bring this matter to the attention of the constabulary."

Speculation as to how this aberrant behavior had gone on under their noses for so long was a long drawn out affair coupled with more tea, and a large number of biscuits. Though the reality may never be known, as it could very well have been a poorly cast notice-me-not placed over the boy under the intention of making it harder for him to be found, or possibly a failure of a poorly defined ward tied to Number Four.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

The uniformed officer knocked firmly on the door to Number Four. A gentleman in a suit standing next to him.

"Mrs. Dursley," the man in the suit said. "May we come in?"

Mrs. Dursley nodded curtly, allowing the two into the sitting room and offering tea.

"No thank you, Ma'am," the officer said. "I'm on duty and prefer to stand by the door."

"Mrs. Dursley," the suited man said. "My name is, David Jones, I need you to take notice of this child assessment order, issued in compliance of the Children Act of 1985 part V."

Petunia Dursley's face went white as a sheet. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Please, Mrs. Dursley, we've been informed that you have your nephew in your care and adequate suspicion of malfeasance has been raised," Mr. Jones said. "I'd hate to call the judge again and have him turn this into an emergency protection order unnecessarily."

Petunia sniffed, drew herself up and looked down her nose at the pair. "He ran away this morning."

"And you haven't seen fit to inform the appropriate authorities of a missing child?" Jones asked. "I believe Mrs. Dursley that my assessment order has just been extended to cover your son as well."

"My Duddly-kins is perfectly happy, thank you," Petunia said with a scowl.

"Mrs. Dursley, I'm just doing my job, and that is to ensure that nothing is amiss here," Jones said giving the officer a subtle hand motion to take a look around.

"Mom?" Dudley called from upstairs. "Where's the freak? I'm hungry."

Petunia winced, visibly.

"Would you care to explain the use of the term Freak, and why he asks for him when hungry, Mrs. Dursley?" Jones asked, as the officer reappeared and whispered in his ear.

"Children call each other all sorts of nasty things, Mr. Jones," Mrs. Dursley replied. "I'm sure you know this as well as I."

"Of course, Mrs. Dursley, I'll allow it," Jones said tentatively accepting the explanation.  
"My apologies, Mrs. Dursley, I just realized I failed to introduce the police officer who came with me, Mrs. Dursley this is Henry Ellis," Jones said motioning to the officer who Mrs. Dursley had somehow forgotten was there. Jones continued, "He found it curious that in the seven years you've had your nephew living here, there is not one picture in the entire house of him."

"The poor dear has a scar on his forehead and has hated getting his picture taken, he destroyed the few we had of him at a younger age when he turned seven," Mrs. Dursley simpered and lied.

"And the boy's bedroom?" Jones asked.

"He's refused to sleep in a bed since he was four, and we have blankets we give him to use in the room next to my son, the one with all the toys," Mrs. Dursley continued inspired. "He's terribly messy though."

"Of course, Mrs. Dursley, children are known to be messy," Jones replied. "I expect my department to be hearing from you and your husband later when you file a missing child report if he doesn't return home in the next few hours."

"Of course," Petunia Dursley replied.

"We will of course be back tomorrow to inspect your son, Dudley, was it?" Jones asked. "Right, Dudley's living conditions. See you tomorrow Mrs. Dursley."

Jones and Ellis told Mrs. Dursley good day before heading back to their car parked on the side of the street.

"Is anything the matter, Officers?" Mrs. Figg asked having approached from her house down the street on seeing the cop car.

"Just here on a report about one of the children living here, Ma'am," Jones replied.

"I'm Arabella Figg, I live up the street. I hope it's not Harry, the poor dear, I've watched the boy a time or two you know," Mrs. Figg told Jones conspiratorily. "Always such a quiet and well behaved boy, his cousin though..."

Jones perked up. "If you'd be willing to provide a few insights and your own observations of the boy, we'd be grateful."

"Of course dear, why don't you stop by my house and we can have tea," Mrs. Figg replied.

"David Jones, social services and children's welfare," the social worker said shaking her hand. "We have to get back to the office, how about we stop by tomorrow?" Jones asked.

"That would be lovely," Mrs. Figg replied.

"What do you think of her," Jones asked as he got into the car and closed the door.

"Definitely doesn't match what the primary caregiver said," Ellis replied.

"Still, we should probably stop by tomorrow and check," Jones said. "The whole situation doesn't sit right with me."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

* * *

**AN: Tentative rescuee list for those who care...**

Last Name | First Name | gender | age | status  
---|---|---|---|---  
Hoffman | Judith | f | 5 | normal  
Milton | Alan | m | 5 | magic  
Mueller | Billie Grant | m | 5 | squib  
Price | Hollis Wilton | m | 5 | normal  
Romero | Jared | m | 5 | magic  
Willis | Cecile | f | 5 | magic  
Butler | Fran Gladys | f | 6 | normal  
Davis | Loretta Isabel | f | 6 | squib  
Dickson | Cherie | f | 6 | normal  
Harrison | Erick Anderson | m | 6 | magic  
Mcleod | Johnson Carson | m | 6 | normal  
Christian | Lillie | f | 7 | magic  
Harris | Alexander LaVelle | m | 7 | squib  
Patterson | Cary | m | 7 | magic  
Rosenburg | Willow | f | 7 | magic  
Summers | Kimberley | f | 7 | normal  
Bruce | Curtis Dwayne | m | 8 | magic  
English | Calvin | m | 8 | magic  
Ramos | Maricela Celia | f | 8 | normal  
Holcomb | Melisa Alfreda | f | 9 | magic  
Pierce | Amelia Constance | f | 9 | squib  
Rea | Peter | m | 9 | magic  
Atkinson | Anastasia Elinor | f | 10 | magic  
Clark | Marco Junior | m | 10 | normal  
Delgado | Joni Roseann | f | 10 | magic  
Mendez | Lorie | f | 10 | normal  
Sharpe | Janis Opal | f | 10 | normal  
Cash | Vance Gregory | m | 11 | normal  
Smith | Oliver Broderick | m | 11 | normal  
Smith | Theresa | f | 11 | squib  
Croft | Terrence Neal | m | 12 | squib  
Glass | Meagan Lilian | f | 12 | squib  
Holloway | Wade Glen | m | 12 | normal  
Fields | Daphne | f | 13 | normal  
Lindsay | Stefan | m | 13 | normal  
Mccray | Greta Janelle | f | 14 | normal  
Middleton | Marlene | f | 14 | normal  
Tanner | Neil | m | 14 | normal  
Vincent | Armand Everett | m | 14 | squib  
Butler | Parker | m | 15 | normal  
Kramer | Kayla | f | 15 | normal  
Wiley | Renaldo | m | 15 | normal


	7. Cold Case

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry minor date edits see end of chapter?

**** rewind — Friday, June 17th****

"Nick! Anything new on the Potter file?" David Jones knocked lightly on the door to Nick's office before he walked in.

"Nothing much, I called the local primary and law enforcement office and asked for anything they had. My team is going over what we got on the fax last night, and they've already given me an early report with the glaring problems," Nick Musset replied from behind his desk, he was a jovial man with a kind face, in his late forties and with a growing bald spot. "There was one report early on in the file from a Keith Brackwood. The man left notes of his suspicions in the files but nothing ever came of it. Why?"

"I'm supposed to head back this afternoon to interview one of the neighbors," David paused to look at his notes. "Mrs. A. Figg, she lives on the same street, and seems have watched him from time to time for the Dursleys," David said absently scratching the back of his head. He was annoyed that the situation hadn't been caught sooner, just one more report from that teacher after the Child Act was passed would have been enough for them to get a court order to supervise the home situation. "Do me a favor Nick, and find out where that teacher went. This just... it doesn't sit right."

"I'll put a team on it. The other major flag in the school file, came from a warning the aunt gave. It seems she told them her nephew was a problem student, but in their first year, both boys were in separate classes and her son was the bigger problem," Nick told him showing him the file.

David flipped through the pages his eyes darting for the highlighted sections, his gut was telling him the entire case was going to be like pulling teeth. He sighed. "This just keeps getting better, doesn't it," he said sarcastically.

"Dave, I'm going to have to forward this to the court for immediate review," Nick said.

"Yeah, and you can include my recommendation, as the case worker investigating, soon as we find the boy, an emergency protection order should go into effect, followed by a care order at best, at worst a supervisory order," David said after a moment of thought. _How the devil had the blasted woman managed to nearly convince him..._ he cut off the thought, no use dwelling on it now.

Nick snorted. "This case really has you riled up, doesn't it?"

"It irritates me that this sort of thing could go for so long without someone noticing," David sighed. "Ah hell, it's probably just that I'm still wet behind the ears. I need the report on my desk by tomorrow morning when I make my own report," Dave said grabbing his jacket. "I'm headed out for my interview, I'll be taking Henry Ellis with me again."

"I'll forward what I have at the end of the day. And don't beat yourself up about caring." Nick packed up the files.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

David knocked lightly on the door, having looked up the address for Mrs. Figg from the phone book. "Mrs. Figg?" he asked as the older woman opened the door just enough to face the visitor outside.

"Yes?" she answered uncertain.

"Hi, David Jones, we talked last night." Dave said. "May we come in?"

"Oh! Mr. Jones, do give me a moment, my cats are all about the place," Mrs. Figg said stepping back from the door.

Ellis gave Jones a look, and asked under his breath, "Neighborhood cat lady?"

Jones shrugged, but didn't get a response in as Mrs. Figg had returned to the door and opened it wide.

"Come in," she ushered the two in and sat them at the table before placing a platter of biscuits and sandwiches in front of them followed by a polished silver tea set.

Dave looked at Ellis, who raised an eyebrow and then subtly shrugged, and began serving himself tea, Dave shook his head and followed suit.

Only after the three of them had made a decent dent in the pile of food did Mrs. Figg speak up, "Now, how can I help you, officers?"

"We're investigating a report concerning Mr. Potter's welfare ma'am, some issues were raised between his schooling and around the neighborhood in regards to his treatment at home," David said softly. "We've talked with his aunt but according to her, he refused to let them take his picture and destroyed all the ones she had of him. If you have a recent photo of record we might use I'd be grateful."

Mrs. Figg looked lost for a moment. "I had suspicions myself, but Albus..." she whispered and then took a breath to steady herself. Not like Albus had listened to her suspicions before, maybe having the muggle authorities involved would help force him to listen. "Of course Mr. Jones. I've watched him on several occasions over the past few years, and while I know young boys don't enjoy keeping old women like me company, he's always been polite and well behaved. I should have a few photos would you mind waiting a moment while I go check?"

"Not at all, Mrs. Figg," David replied waiting until she had turned away to make a note about the whispered comment concerning someone named Albus.

A few minutes later Mrs. Figg returned with a handful of black and white photos that looked to have come from an older camera. "Here you go, I took these a few weeks ago when his aunt had me watch him over the weekend. I've offered his aunt copies but..." Mrs. Figg trailed off. Knowing full well Petunia was a spiteful woman who gave only the bare minimum where her nephew was concerned.

"These will do nicely thank you," David said flipping through them and found himself glad he wasn't a father, thinking in a few years the boy would be a heartbreaker. "Can you tell us your own observations of him, Mrs. Figg?"

She hesitated a moment clearly considering something before bringing out an old notebook. "I've been keeping... notes," she said looking embarrassed.

"May I?" David asked holding out a hand.

Mrs. Figg handed over the notebook which was open to the date _Tuesday, June 24, -96,_ he read the entry, _Saw Harry limping today as he went about chores in garden._ A small photo paperclipped to the page showed a child who looked like he couldn't be more than five, with messy black hair and scruffy clothes.

"Mrs. Figg, may I make a copy of this?" David asked.

"Keep it, I have another in the other room I made just in case," Mrs. Figg said, reminding herself that she'd made up her mind to help. Besides, Albus had shown up a last night looking frantic asking about the Dursleys and Harry before rushing off again to who knows where without even listening to her concerns. If the great Albus Dumbledore couldn't keep track of things perhaps these two gentlemen could do better.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

**A Week later**

David sighed, pushing the file off to the the end it was actually Dudley's own actions that saw him removed from his parents' custody.

Without Harry there to target, Dudley's gang had wrongly chosen a younger child to bully and as a result their actions couldn't be swept under the rug. The existing evidence alone wasn't enough, but with the new complaint, the Dursleys, their nephew still missing were charged with neglect and given that his parents wouldn't discipline him, the juvenile court chose to temporarily remove him for mandatory counseling.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

****Fast forward****

Nico examined the softball sized device sitting at his desk in his apartment. He'd picked it up after he'd done a sweep of the grounds looking for anything out of the ordinary that might help him with his report on how the research center had been infiltrated.

He fiddled with the device rotating it this way and that before carefully making a note of each button and speculations on what its function was.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

omake from Ch. 10:

Harry shuffled into the mess, yawning sleepily just inside the door. He looked around and blinked at the crowded room. It was too early for this, he decided, ignoring the crowd.

James looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to ask?"

The five year old sitting on James lap chose this moment to look up and say, "Finished with my breakfast, daddy. Can I go play now?"

Harry raised an eyebrow and looked at his father. "Wasn't mum pregnant just yesterday?"

James coughed and after letting the five year old go, looked at Harry with a raised eyebrow.

"You didn't have Bones splice you both with rabbit DNA, did you?" Harry deadpanned.

***0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0***

Omake for Ch. 2:

Gene fiddled with the small box that had crashed near his campsite, one side morphed open to show a plug that would fit the cable connection his TV used.

He plugged it in and the screen flickered before showing a man talking into the camera.

Static crackled from the speakers before the sound came in clear. "Captains log, I'm ejecting this emergency log buoy in the hopes it reaches starfleet in time to halt the anomaly..." the static kicked in again. "Subspace rifts are disrupting the warp field I advise extreme caution in approach," more static, and then a series of diagrams played across the screen.

Gene's imagination was piqued and he started writing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> he's 7 in chapter 2 since it's now before his birthday, the most recent scenes from 9 and 10 are moved to october...


	8. Diana

**Episode 3:**

**Act1:** Diana

Parker Hoffman was awoken by the sound of voices outside his window. Growing up in the orphanage, he would be the first to tell you that magic and fantasy belonged solely in books. So, waking up to find masked men pointing sticks at the place he'd called home for most of his life, beams of light in various colors streaming out to ignite whatever they hit, genuinely scared him.

His first thought was to get the hell out of there, the place was on fire and he wanted to live dammit. What kept him from bolting though was his sense of duty, which kicked in with a vengeance. There were others inside, sure he didn't like some of the ankle biters, but that was no reason to let them all just die. Making the decision, he started going through the dorms and getting people up.

He pounded first on Kayla's door and then Rupert's, the other two as the oldest there it would be the responsibility of the three of them to make sure everyone got out safe. Of course in the chaos of organizing forty other screaming children some trapped behind burning doors, he hadn't noticed the burning support beam falling behind him trapping him in.

Parker coughed as he inhaled the thick smoke from the burning building. He was fifteen years old and next year would be his last here. This wasn't the expected outcome of his life, he had goals, like getting a job so he could support himself. Or finishing school with good grades so he could get a scholarship. He had plans dammit, and dieing in a burning orphanage wasn't part of them. He stared in horror at the burning beam, wincing from the heat, before a slight tugging sensation pulled him from the scene.

With the sudden change in the air he doubled over coughing as his body tried to force the smoke he'd inhaled out of his lungs. He stared wide eyed at the clean blue and white of the room he found himself standing in.

He ruthlessly crushed the jealousy and cynicism that flared up as he watched the younger children interact with the Potter adults.

As much as he would love to be able to join in and call them mom and dad, he knew it would feel hollow. Too much time had passed for him to comfortably accept placing himself under their parental authority.

Seeing the doctor on the other side of the room, Parker called out, "Doctor McCoy!"

"You'll have to tell me your name son," Doctor McCoy said as he motioned for them to head into the CMO's office and slid the glass door closed.

"I'm Parker Hoffman, sir," Parker replied.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Hoffman, or would you prefer Parker?" Bones asked.

"Parker would be fine," the young adult replied.

"Leonard or Bones then, if you would," the doctor replied. "So, what do you want to discuss?"

"I..." Parker started and froze up for a moment before steadying himself. "I don't belong here Dr. McCoy, and I'm sure at least one of the other older orphans feels the same way."

"How can I help you then?" Bones asked.

"All of this," Parker waved his hands. "It's not me, my life is down there, on earth, in England. I've spent the last few years working towards a goal. I'm training to be a part of the british RAF, with the goal of being SAS. I know secrets, I understand them, I respect them. I can keep my mouth shut about all this. Not that anyone would believe me." Parker shook his head.

McCoy nodded. "I think I understand. Would you talk with the rest of the group and make of a list of everyone who wants to return? I'll talk with the captain and see if we can work up a decent cover story for you."

"Thanks, Doctor," Parker replied getting up and walking to the door.

**~BTSF~**

"What's this?" Lily asked when she saw the image on the screen.

"The solution to at least one of our problems," Harry said with a grin.

"Oh?" James asked.

"It's a Horta egg," Harry said excitedly. "They're a silicone based life form, essentially sentient machines designed for mining, that were left on a planet a long time ago by another race. I can place a group on Jupiter's moon Io. They mine the stuff and act as mobile refineries." Harry clicked the remote changing the picture to an adult Horta with minerals growing out of it's back. "Then I can just send a request through the wireless network and have them drop off the refined materials."

"Hold up, honey. When you say sentient machine, what's to stop them from turning on you?" Lily asked.

"Only themselves, but they don't really care about that sort of thing, they're miners and with the relay they can make use of the ship's database. As long as we continue recognizing that they are sentient, thinking, and feeling beings, the records indicate Starfleet only had problems with them when they were mistreated," Harry replied. "One of them once made a comment about how humans confused them with the questions on existence. For a Horta, they know their purpose is to gather the resources of the ground and eventually create new Horta when their systems begin to break down."

"Enough about me," Harry said smiling. "Bones, what's the report on our refuges?"

"The younger children are settling in and adjusting to the change in environment rather well, a few have even unofficially adopted Lily and James as parental figures. However a few of the older ones have expressed a desire to be returned to their lives on the planet," the doctor said pulling up the short list of names. "These five shared their discomfort with relearning everything they know, but are willing to keep in touch and stay quiet about us if we return them."

"Understandable," Harry said after looking over the list. "The ones on the list are close to reaching their majority. Let them know we're looking for a suitable location to beam them back down and offer them a subdermal communicator and health monitor."

"Anything else from your department doctor?" Harry asked.

McCoy cleared his throat. "Diana has asked if she could fill the role of ships counsellor," he said.

Harry's brow furrowed in confusion. "Diana?"

"I believe you decided we were calling her Ayianna until she could provide us with her given name," McCoy said.

Harry nodded his recognition.

"Also, Grace, the young nurse we rescued from the burning orphanage, has requested starfleet medical training and an assistant nurse position," McCoy continued.

"I don't see a problem with that, though I would like to interview both of them first," Harry said.

"I'll add them to your schedule captain," Sky interjected.

"Thanks," Harry nodded to his first officer, who was also filling the role of yeoman and a dozen other jobs. "Anything from your side, Sky?" Harry asked.

"We need to start considering where to set up the support infrastructure," Sky spoke up. "Earth's governments are already sending out exploratory probes to map the solar system, so anything we build in system will have to be small enough to camouflage itself."

"Does it have to be near a planet?" James was toying with a model of the solar system.

"How do you mean?" Harry asked as he turned to look at what James was doing.

James looked up from his map and hit the button to transfer it to the room's main display. "If we aren't bound to building near a planet then can we build in the open areas above and before the orbital plane?" James pointed to the huge open area of the map. "I know I'm just starting to learn most of this, but if we need to hide something in system, I recall my astronomy classes were mainly focused on the planets and stars visible along the orbital plane, so why not build our projects near the middle, let's say one au. straight up or down from the sun?"

The room was quiet for a moment as everyone absorbed the idea and Lily him.

"What was that for?" James asked as he hugged his wife back.

"I love it when you use your brain," she said and then leaned closer and whispered in his ear, the rest of the room only caught the word 'tonight'. Except in the case of the two holographic AIs as both had access to the sensors in the room and chose to forget what she whispered.

"It's a good idea," Harry said once James had managed to return to reality, though the dopey grin remained plastered on his face.

"I'm not finding anything in the database that would say it's impossible, from what I can determine, generally bases are built on the orbital plane for the sake of convenience," Sky said. "I'll schedule some time to research and design what we need."

Harry nodded in acknowledgement, there was a good deal on his plate for the next week. "Alright here's our schedule, first priority is returning those who wish planetside. Doctor, I want you to make sure they're all informed and equipped properly," Harry said as he outlined the plan for the next week.

**~ BTSF ~**

Diana looked around the office and raised an eyebrow. Not quite how she would have organized things but workable, she decided after a cursory glance. The slightly macabre displays on the shelves would have to be replaced, maybe with some fresh plants from the ships arboretum.

She hoped it wasn't arrogance, the confidence she felt, but, she had a good feeling about this. She carefully packed up the trinkets left by the previous occupant of the office and asked the ship's computer to move the boxes to storage, marveling at the efficiency and stability of the AI.

She'd just finished having the ship move the last box when the door chimed. "Enter," she called out, and the door slid back to reveal a young man with black hair, peeking nervously into the room.

"Doctor McCoy said you were young," Diana said with a light smile. She noticed him looking around the mostly empty room. "My apologies captain, I took the liberty of redecorating, seems the previous ship's counsellor had a taste for more esoteric artifacts."

"Quite understandable Miss..." Harry trailed off.

"Please, call me Diana," the prospective ship's counsellor told him.

"Diana then, and I'm Harry, at least in private that is," Harry replied with a grin. "The ship's previous occupants didn't have a chance to pack up before leaving. So, I'm sure we're going to have a lot of redecorating."

"Have you had a chance to review the requirements for a ship's counsellor?" Harry asked.

"Doctor McCoy provided them to me, and then some," Diana said moving to sit in the lounge. "I was intrigued at the unofficial manual compiled by various counsellors over the years."

Harry smiled. "We captains have our own version of that one too," he said with a laugh. "Any thoughts on the requirements and starting material as they currently stand?" he asked.

"A few," Diana replied pausing to gather her thoughts. "My experience has for the most part been working with humans, though we did have diplomatic contact with other species; the majority of our learning was with humans. Having such a... rich and diverse database to work with, with information relating to thousands of species..." Diana trailed off. "I'm sorry, I'm rather passionate about my field."

"No need to apologize," Harry said. "It's taken me a while myself to get to the point where I can express my emotions openly, and I feel the same way when I'm standing on the bridge."

Diana nodded and filed away the information as Harry continued. "We're allowed to be passionate, as long as we don't lose sight of the people around us."

She nodded her agreement, keeping silent as she put some thought into the idea. Her people had been scientists for so long, and looking back she felt that perhaps they had lost sight of those around them.

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note (12/4): I so hate adding a 'chapter' just to note something. Just wanted to let you all know what's going on with the lack of activity across my stories. I am still alive! However, I recently got hired to a new job, so 97.899 percent of my attention is consumed by training and making sure I do my job right.


	9. Chapter 9

Parker smiled, looking around at the clearing. He bounced back and forth on his heels his smile growing into a toothy grin. If he'd been ordered by a commanding officer from the SAS, or given the choice to go up he might not have objected, but the ship had felt confining to him. The four who'd joined him in returning had their reasons too, he was sure, but they were their own.

His group of five were well prepared, their story had been practiced and collaborated on. They made sure to add the variations that would be expected from differing accounts should there be any questions.

Their gear, while not the latest and best available, done purposely to avoid questions, it was still adequate and showed the classic signs of long use. There was enough food and water for the five of them for a few days, and civilization was only a short walk through the forest to the nearest town.

It'd taken some talking and a lot of questions on exactly what the little tracking device would be allowed to do before he'd agreed to it, and then only because it had been offered. It was a backup plan, if he ever needed help it would be a simple matter to activate the emergency locator implant.

Now, he just had to get himself and the rest of them back into town, where hopefully they hadn't been declared dead yet.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Back on the ship Grace cleared the display where she'd been watching the returning group's progress through the forest.

The medical support chair encased most of her body while the nutrient rich burn gel and dermal regenerators built into the chair worked to regrow burned muscle tissue and skin. She grimaced as she looked down at her left arm encased in green gel.

She had no illusions about her prognosis, under normal circumstances she would have been horribly disfigured. She didn't quite understand the technology supporting her, the burn gel and support chair which had her cocooned in a reduced gravity field and pain suppression, but she was grateful for it. Doctor McCoy had told her that she should expect another month in the chair as they cleared away the damage to her body.

Grace sighed and used her good arm to pick the padd back up and continued reading the medical text where she'd left off.

Doctor McCoy turned away from the open door where he'd been watching his patient and back into his office. The most vital part of any recovery is keeping spirits high, it's part of his core knowledge, a patient that has nothing left to live for will allow themselves to waste away.

Bones tapped a few keys on his computer and sent a message off to Diana, the new ship's counsellor for her review. Diana was another curiosity to him, she'd been found in some sort of metabolic stasis in antarctica, infected by what had to be a weaponized virus. Surprisingly it had only taken Diana a day to learn english even if it was with the help of the universal translator.

He set aside his thoughts on that for now and went back to the open file in front of him. Grace was working against the medical training and knowledge she studied all her life. While they couldn't instantly restore her, what he was able to do was as close to magic to her, as well, actual magic.

He cleared the screen and pulled up the other problem file, the subject was a child, showing signs of being overweight for most of his life before a series of changes in lifestyle, diet, and living arrangements had seen him begin a rapid loss of weight over a few short months.

Why the boy wanted biomechanical replacements instead of a simpler regrowth treatment, Bones shook his head as he examined the file. The boy's name had been redacted from the file, off to the side a nurse had made note of his chosen name. David had been trapped in his room when the fire started, most of his injuries were due to falling debris as the fire ate away at the wood holding the building up.

McCoy reviewed the enhancement options again and sent the captain the details on the procedure he was willing to perform at the patient's request. He wouldn't be removing any limbs since it didn't make sense to him medically, but it wouldn't be that difficult to introduce a similar nanite treatment to the captain's.

One of the kid's eyes was damaged, which would normally be replaced with a replicated clone, so he might be able to give him optical sensors like Admiral LaForge had, hopefully the kid was still young enough for those to take.

McCoy saved the updated notes on the file and leaned back in the chair, thinking about the past week.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

I've finished my analysis of the idea James had," Sky said into the quiet hum of the bridge. Sky was sitting at ops tapping away at the computer, not that he needed to use the manual input to get his work done, but it gave the captain something to focus on while both of them worked.

Harry looked up from a holographic game of mahjong, "Oh?"

"To resource intensive at the moment," Sky said. "A permanent base usually makes use of the natural magnetic field and gravity well of a planet. If we wanted to put a stationary base above the solar plane we'd need better engines to maintain position and stronger shields to protect from the solar radiation. It's still an interesting idea for stealth bases as long as we can mask the power signature though."

Harry nodded and tapped another pair of tiles on his game board. "Let's keep it in mind then and work on the design when we can."

"How much time until we reach Io?" Harry asked.

"We should be in orbit in another two hours, also the Potters have volunteered to place a few charms on the lander to help hide it." Sky replied.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

The ship slowed from in-system cruising speed, maneuvering into a standard orbit of the moon designated Jupiter I. From the underside of the ship a large door slid away revealing the interior of a lower shuttlebay. A few minutes later the mining lander smoothly slid through the forcefield and out into open space.

The lander itself was shaped like a large rock that had been cut in half, on the smooth, flat side was the opening for the engine and mechanics that would allow the lander mobility on the surface. On the upper hull of the lander it had been covered with an adequate facsimile of the rocky surface it would soon be landing on. Augmenting this low tech natural camouflage, the Potters had added their own magic in the forms of notice-me-not and disillusionment charms.

Within the lander's main compartment, surrounded by the best inertial dampeners and cushioning charms, lay the thirty-two silicone spheres. Within each sphere nanomachines worked to turn the raw materials into the body that would one day serve the Horta consciousness slowly growing within a small computer at the center of the sphere.

Space on the lander was at a premium having been kept as small as possible to avoid using too much of their stockpile. So, the lander would be paired with a second cloaked satellite holding the dedicated communication array designed to keep the Horta colony connected with the Caelis Ignis Fornax.

On the ship all eyes, well most of them minus a few of the younger children possibly, were glued to the view screens as they watched the lander descend towards Io, the engine underneath firing every now and then as it lowered itself into the hostile atmosphere. When the ship finally touched down and the check came back green, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. They would only need another twenty hours until the eggs would hatch unleashing the Horta on the slightly volcanic moon below them.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Three hours later the Harry watched the reports from the as yet unhatched but still growing Horta, the young minds were quickly absorbing the ship's library databases communicated over their short range wireless network.

Later he would look back and realize this had been the birth of one of his greatest assets. In more ways than one they would surpass their origin, as the Horta would prove their worth in hours of research, analysis, and simulation work.


End file.
